Top Dawg Entertainment lost a small-claims case regarding a Kendrick Lamar verse given to Canadian rapper Jonathan Emile, Billboard reports.
On October 24, the court ruled in favor of Emile after the label did not respond to the case. He was awarded $6,400. Emile first filed the claim against TDE, Interscope and Universal Music Group after he received a notification for copyright infringement for his song “Heaven Help Dem” featuring Kendrick Lamar when it was taken off SoundCloud and YouTube.
Emile, who hails from Montreal, said that to record the song, he reached out to Lamar’s team himself and they agreed for K Dot to do the verse, saying they liked the concept of a tribute to Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and the other black men and women killed in recent injustices. After Emile paid them, he said that the label stopped answering his calls as he was finalizing the legal documents for the contract.
“We couldn’t get in contact,” Emile says, “so I just continued producing my album and with the verbal agreement we had, and we put out the song in 2015.”
After he received the notifications of copyright infringement, Emile explained the situation to the platforms where the song was taken down and the track was restored. But he says the damage had already been done and the debacle greatly affected his promotion for the song and the album it was featured on, The Lover/Fighter Document.
The cancer survivor spoke with HipHopDX last year about how TDE tried to make him take down “Heaven Help Dem” after he had already released it.
“I sent his camp at Top Dawg a courtesy email weeks prior to the release letting them know what the schedule was and that it was going forward,” he said. “And I told them to hit me back if there was a problem. He listened to the verse and he just didn’t hit me back for a couple of weeks. So, consistent with our rollout plan we put the song out. So we had the final version of the song and everything and my verse didn’t change. So the song came out and then all of a sudden he’s like, ‘Yo. Don’t put the song up.’ That was five days after it dropped.
“So, I was like, ‘Well, you guys were just cool and now the song is up. It’s not a question of me not releasing it. The song is out there.’ So, they tried to strong arm me. I was like, ‘Listen, if I can take it down I will, but the song is already out.’ Then he tried to front like, ‘Yo, it’s Interscope. Interscope is gonna take it down.’ And I couldn’t understand what the problem was.”
Emile represented himself in court and said the decision is a moral victory as he begins promotion for his next album, Phantom Pain.
Listen to Jonathan Emile’s “Heaven Help Dem” featuring Kendrick Lamar below.
Seems kinda weird maybe the big ccompanies own the rappers eeve though they warn uu about it
who give a f bout montreal anyway
Sounds like Kendrick a slave to his label. Agree to do a song, love the concept and back out. Be a man and tell us why the change of heart all of a sudden, don’t be blaming the label. You and your camp said yes and you were paid for your work, now you look like a bitch and can’t even appear in court on your own behalf. Someone strange here…
Id bet 10k it was his management that did this with full knowledge of what they were doing. They knew Emile didnt have interscope clearance money but did have $6,400.0 and could pay for the verse. Record labels always get blamed but after 10+ years working in this biz I can tell you that often some of the shadiest business is done by artists and their team and then they’ll drop a “concious” record right after. Hey, its the American way.
Or maybe it was such a great verse he saw more success to it. Hands down this is an awesome verse. Released properly it would have been a hit. But hey, the world may never know. Thanks to sketchy label dealings.