Chance The Rapper Is Being Sued Over A Jazz Sample On A Five-Year-Old Mixtape

Chance The Rapper is a model citizen who in just the past few weeks has done great things like offer to grill chicken for charity and raise over $2 million for Chicago schools, but now he finds himself in some legal trouble: He’s being sued for copyright infringement over “Windows,” a track from his debut 2012 mixtape 10 Day.

The Chicago Tribune reports that lawyer and jazz musician Abdul Wali Muhammad filed a federal lawsuit on Chicago on Tuesday, accusing the rapper of “blatant and willful infringement” for sampling a “significant portion” of Lonnie Liston Smith’s 1980 song “Bridge Through Time,” which Muhammad (formerly known as Eric P. Saunders) composed and owns the copyright of.

https://soundcloud.com/chancetherapper/windows

Muhammad is seeking damages and has requested that a federal judge order Chance to stop “copying, distributing, performing, selling or offering to sell” the song. Muhammad’s attorney says he contacted Chance’s team about the infringement in May, but that “Chance failed and refused to take any action to halt access to the infringing song.”

10 Day was originally released as a free mixtape on April 3, 2012, although it was accidentally available for purchase on iTunes briefly in January, along with his 2013 mixtape Acid Rap. The mistake was quickly remedied, though, and Chance said at the time, “10 Day was fraudulently put on iTunes and Apple Music. It’ll be down shortly. 10 Day and Acid Rap will always be inclusive, elusive and free.”

Chance or any representatives have yet to make a public comment about the lawsuit. Chance has been more careful when dealing with samples in recent years, though, since he kept “Grown Ass Kid” off of Coloring Book because he couldn’t legally clear the track.

Listen to “Windows” above, and hear “Bridge Through Time” below.