Another day, another Fetty Wap lawsuit. This time, the rapper is being sued over his hit “679.” The song, which dropped in 2015, features two rap verses from the Remy Boyz — Monty and P-Dice — on the self-titled EP. But that was the original. The current version, played on the radio, has removed P-Dice’s verse. P-Dice claims that he owns a 16.9 percent stake in the original track, but that was reduced to 5 percent on the album version. Now, he is suing Fetty for $7 million in damages. Ouch. 

This isn’t the first time Fetty has been sued — in fact, he is involved with another lawsuit this very minute. Danish musician Lazar Lakic is suing Fetty and his producer Tony Fadd over “Trap Queen.” Apparently, Lakic bought exclusive rights to the beat behind “Trap Queen,” and has received no royalties or compensation for its use. Lakic doesn’t just want money, though, he wants all copies of “Trap Queen” destroyed. Double ouch. 

For most sampling cases, if Lakic’s claims are true, he’d most likely get a cut of the royalties for the song. Or the artists could always just end up settling before actually going to trial. But Fetty’s attorney said to TMZ that Fetty legally bought the beat and has the contract to prove it — which means, of course, no royalties for Lakic. In regards to his demand to have all of the songs destroyed, well, that’s impossible. At this point, it’s all over the internet. There’s no way to actually grant that. The most Lakic would get would be a slice of the pie.  

A similar case occurred with Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams’ “Blurred Lines,” which basically ripped off Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” They had to pay $7.3 million to Gaye’s estate and went on and on about how it set a “horrible precedent” for the music industry.  

I was in Gaye’s camp on this one and I’m sort of in Lakic’s camp, if his claims are true. Essentially, people that sample without giving credit or getting permission are taking somebody’s else work and crediting themselves to it. Not only is it often times bastardization of the original artist, but it is their intellectual property. They created it. And yes, I understand that there is going to be overlap and occasionally songs will sound similar. But blatant sampling without giving credit is musical plagiarism. You’re stealing. 

As for the Remy Boyz verse, it sounds just like artist beef. P-Dice has called out Fetty on multiple platforms, and Fetty has made it clear that he isn’t exactly fond of P-Dice either. Artists change songs from EP to album. Often times they’re mastered differently, verses change, occasionally they add additional voices — and in this case, they took one away. P-Dice should be grateful for the 5 percent, honestly. It sounds like Fetty would have given none if he had the option. Whether or not it’ll hold up in court will be an interesting legal battle. 

And hey, after the Juice Jam flop, Fetty may see a third legal case — some SU students seem angry enough to sue. Good luck, Fetty. You’ll need it.  

Emera Riley is a junior magazine journalism major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. You can email her at elril100@syr.edu.

Published on November 8, 2016 at 8:25 pm