When Chris Brown and Drake were sued last year for copyright infringement in 2021 over the use of the phrase “You got it” in their hit song “No Guidance,” the duo scoffed at the lawsuit, calling it “baseless” and requesting a federal judge dismiss the suit entirely.
Still, the lawsuit has dragged on. Now the esteemed duo has issued another scorching filing aimed at the singer Braindon Cooper, who has continued to claim “No Guidance” illegally pulled from their 2016 song “I Love Your Dress.” Lawyers for Brown and Drake had previously argued neither artist had heard of “I Love Your Dress,” and referred to it as an “obscure” song.
In February, Cooper pushed back and claimed it was both “egotistical and without any legal basis whatsoever” to assume Brown and Drake hadn’t heard their song. On Wednesday (March 16), Brown and Drake asserted it wasn’t “egotistical” to assume they hadn’t heard all “82 million songs on Spotify.”
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“This is not a close call,” Brown’s lawyer James G. Sammataro wrote in the filing which was obtained by Rolling Stone. “Posting a song on the Internet — such that the song is 1 out of 82 million songs on Spotify or posted by one of Instagram’s 1 billion users — and a one-time public performance do not constitute widespread dissemination as a matter of law.”
The filing additionally pushes back on Cooper’s claim that he had previously shared “I Love Your Dress” with a Canadian A&R named Mic Tee in March 2019. Cooper had suggested in a previous claim that Mic Tee was employed by AMAG Collective at the time, a management firm tied to Birdman and Cash Money Records. Cooper alleged it was plausible that Mic Tee might have sent Cooper’s song to Birdman, and that Birdman might have then forwarded it to Brown since both artists appeared together in Nick Cannon’s 2020 film She Ball.
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“Here, plaintiffs do not even allege that defendants know Mic Tee. Nor do plaintiffs allege that Mic Tee gave defendants a copy of plaintiffs’ song or that Mic Tee had any involvement in the creation of ‘No Guidance.’ Plaintiff’s theory of access through Mic Tee is purely conjectural and speculative,” the filing reads. Cooper had also hinted that a meeting might have possibly occurred between Mic Tee and Birdman in Drizzy’s hometown of Toronto.
“Plaintiffs’ allegation that Mic Tee suggested that Cooper travel to Toronto, Drake’s ‘original hometown,’ is insufficient to permit an inference of access. By plaintiffs’ own account, Drake has resided in California since 2014. In any event, there is no allegation that Cooper went to Toronto, and it is implausible to assume that every musician in Toronto collaborates and shares music with Drake,” the filing reads.
A Florida judge has yet to rule on the dismissal.
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Check out both songs below.
