Kendrick Lamar is being sued over the soundtrack to Black Panther again, this time by the defunct experimental rock back Yeasayer. TMZ reports Yeasayer has filed a lawsuit against Kendrick and The Weeknd for their song “Pray For Me,” which the band claims uses an unauthorized sound from their 2007 song, “Sunrise.”
Yeasayer says that a “distinctive choral performance” was sampled and altered for “Pray For Me,” and is interpolated throughout the track. The band claims the sample is “immediately recognizable” and demands all the profits from the track, as well as damages and an injunction blocking further sales and airplay.
This isn’t the first time Kendrick was hit with a lawsuit in 2018 over his work on the Black Panther soundtrack. British-Liberian painter Lina Iris Viktor sued Kendrick over the video for “All The Stars” featuring SZA, claiming that he copied her work in the clip, despite previously asking for and being denied permission to do so. However, the case was dismissed after Kendrick and Top Dawg Entertainment settled out of court for an undisclosed sum a few months later.
Meanwhile, Kendrick’s new album is reportedly finished and utilizes more “rock sounds,” so hopefully he cleared whatever samples he used and can avoid a similar situation for his next project.
Pitchfork has copies of the official court documents, which you can read here.
