Future and Metro Boomin (along with Kendrick Lamar) are mentioned in a new lawsuit by the estate of legendary singer Barry White — but they’re not the ones being sued.
The Barry White Family Trust is suing 1980s rap duo Rodney-O & Joe Cooley, whose classic song “Everlasting Bass” is interpolated on Future, Metro and K.dot’s hit song “Like That” — Rodney and Cooley both received writing credits on the track. “Everlasting Bass” itself, the suit claims, uses elements of White’s 1973 song “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby.”
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The suit calls “Like That” the “infringing work,” but does not name any of the song’s producers or artists because the White estate believes that Kendrick, Metro, Future and their respective record companies have all indemnified themselves — meaning that they made an agreement with the owners of “Everlasting Bass” that if there were legal issues with “Like That” due to problems with the older song (such as uncleared samples) then the owners of “Everlasting Bass” would be liable, not the writers of “Like That.”
As for why White’s estate hasn’t gone after Rodney-O & Joe Cooley until now, despite the fact that their song was released in the mid-1980s, the suit says: “Since the Defendants’ song, Everlasting Bass, was released prior to the internet and was not widely distributed, the Barry White Trust was unaware of the song when it was first released.”
The White Family Trust is asking for “all profits and damages” resulting from the alleged infringement of their copyright.
“Like That,” in addition to, or more likely because of, kicking off the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef, has been a major hit. It is currently in its 27th week on the current Billboard Hot 100 chart. It actually debuted at number one on that same chart back in April.
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Kendrick had previous topped the Hot 100 tally twice before in his career, with his feature on Taylor Swift‘s “Bad Blood” in 2015 and “Humble” in 2017.
“Like That,” which famously finds K. Dot taking aim at his “Big Three” rivals, set a new commercial record after reaching one million equivalent sales units in less than three weeks.
