Mac Miller was recently hit with a $150,000 lawsuit for an unauthorized Aquarian Dream sample featured on "Therapy." The track was featured on his 2014 mixtape Faces.
According to TMZ, the soul/funk band's Jacques Burvick is suing Miller for using the group's song "Yesterday (Was So Nice Today)" from their Fantasy album.
Burvick claims Miller's reps admitted to trying to contact him to get permission, but when they were unable to reach him, Miller used the song anyway.
"Therapy" has reportedly been downloaded more than 700,000 times from Miller's website oldjewish.com.
Forking over the $150K should not be too much of a hassle for the Pennsylvania rapper. In October, Miller dropped his indie status and signed a $10 million deal with Warner Bros.
Last September, Kendrick Lamar was hit with a similar lawsuit when Eric Reed and Willie Jones sued the rapper for ripping off their music for his 2011 track "Rigamortis."
Reed and Jones composed a song called "The Thorn" in 2010, which features the same "infectious rhythm and commanding horns" heard on Lamar's "Rigamortis."
The two musicians sued for at least $1 million as well as all profits from and rights to the song.
Jay Z recently agreed to pay 50 percent of the royalties from his song "Versus" to Swiss jazz musician Bruno Spoerri. He accused the Roc Nation head honcho of using his instrumental "On the Way" for the track featured on his album Magna Carta Holy Grail.
Readers: What do you make of the situation? What do you think of artists sampling music without authorization? Was Mac Miller wrong for using the sample despite his reps's attempts? Is $150,000 a reasonable amount, although Miller did not make any money off the song?
Sound off in the comments section below to let us know your thoughts.
© 2024 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.