Jay Z has agreed to pay half the royalties from his 2013 song “Versus” to a Swiss Jazz musician after lifting the melody.
“The rapper had denied copying instrumental ‘Lilith — on the way’ in his 2013 song ‘Versus,’ the UK Daily Mail reports today (March 13). “But he has now agreed to pay 50 per cent of the royalties to the Swiss pianist and saxophonist, following an 18-month legal wrangle.”
Bruno Spoerri, the Swiss musician due to receive the royalties, says the situation both flattered and infuriated him.
“In a way I’m flattered that a relatively young rapper takes a sample from an old man, a sample that is about 35 years old,” Spoerri said to SwissInfo.CH last January. “On the other hand I’m furious because it would have been so simple to clear the sample. All it would have needed was a call or an email to the company and I think it would have been relatively cheap.”
The melody from Spoerri’s 1978 song “On The Way” were used on Jay Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail without permission or attribution. Jay Z did not admit fault until recently. Timbaland and Swizz Beats are credited as the producers for the track.
“In this case, the lifted melody came from a song composed by Spoerri in 1978, with the musician rejecting an initial offer as ‘too low,’” the Daily Mail reports.
Jay Z was previously involved with lawsuits stemming from hit song “Big Pimpin’” as well as an infringement suit from Watch The Throne track “The Joy.”
Jay Z’s agreement to pay 50% of his royalties to the Swiss musician comes on the heels of a Los Angeles courts ruling that Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke owe $7.3 million to the family of Marvin Gaye over copyright infringement.
For additional Jay Z coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
GOOD FOR HIPHOPDX FOR POSTING THIS HIP HOP NEWS UNLIKE ELLIOTT WILSON SMH
Oh look timbaland stealing other peoples work again.
If the producer made the beat why does this fall on the rapper to pay 50% of his royalties?
A song has royalties for the song-writer(s). Usually, you have words and music. If I’m a singer in a band and I write the words and my guitarist writes the music.. it’s fairly typical that I’m a 50% owner of the songwriting. This is the simplified version, anyway. If Jay Z isn’t creating the music he’s rapping over, the song is only around 1/2 his anyway. And if he is releasing this song with 1/2 of it “written” by Timba/Swizz/whoever, he is claiming that he has the rights to use the musical track and release it commercially. A rapper doesn’t have the right to just use any music he wants and not care if it’s ow
Who produced this beat Swizz Beats or Timbaland?????? m curious cuz it sounds like something Swizz would do but of course this website it too lazy to report the news so they only stenograp’h tabloids. …………
Anyway, I’m glad Jayz, Robin THicke, and Sam Smith had to pay up for stealing music.