British singer-songwriter Bakar and his viral hit “Hell N Back” – a track featured in millions of TikTok videos – are facing a messy new lawsuit over its prominent sample of a decades-old R&B song.
In a case filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, Tuff City Records says Bakar and Sony Music infringed the copyrights to Robert Parker’s 1967 track “I Caught You In A Lie” by heavily sampling from it in “Hell N Back.”
That Bakar used the sample, which plays throughout his song, is no new revelation. But Tuff City says there’s a rival record company called Resnik Music that’s been making a “false claim of ownership” to Parker’s song – and thus to the licensing revenue for “Hell N Back.”
“Because of their false claim of ownership in the composition, Resnik … have been licensing the use of the composition to others, and has been collecting monies to which they are not entitled, and which should have been paid to plaintiff,” Tuff City’s lawyers write.
“Hell N Back,” first released in 2019 and again on his 2023 album Halo as a remix with Summer Walker, has enjoyed a sustained run of popularity thanks largely to it prominence on TikTok, where the Walker duet alone has soundtracked more than 1.9 million posts. The song, which briefly charted on the Billboard Hot 100 last year, was also featured in the trailer for the 2023 Disney/Pixar film Elemental.
In its lawsuit on Tuesday, Tuff City says “Hell N Back” is essentially built on top of “I Caught You In A Lie,” using the “entire rhythm track” from the earlier song “throughout the entire duration” of newer tune.
“The use of the entire rhythm track (including all of bass and drum sounds) from the composition and master in [“Hell N Back”] were not authorized by plaintiff,” the company’s lawyers write.
Tuff City, which owns a large catalog of old songs, is no stranger to copyright litigation. Over the past fifteen years, the company has sued over tracks by Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Christina Aguilera, Frank Ocean and others, typically alleging that they featured unlicensed samples or interpolations; it is currently litigating such a case over allegations that Mary J. Blige’s 1992 hit “Real Love” illegally featured a famed 1973 funk sample.
Unlike many sampling suits, the dispute over Bakar’s song does not appear to be over whether he sneakily used the older material. The appearance of “I Caught You In A Lie” in “Hell N Back” has long been public knowledge via Genius and other online databases, and Tuff City’s lawsuit repeatedly alludes to attempts to clear the sample.
But Tuff City alleges that any such efforts were aimed at the wrong parties. In addition to Resnik Music’s “false” claim to ownership of the Parker’s underlying music, the lawsuit claims that Sony entered into a licensing agreement in 2019 with a person named Maple Gaines, who allegedly claimed to own the rights to the master for “I Caught You In A Lie.”
“Gaines did not own the master, she was not authorized to enter into the agreement, and as she lacked the rights, the agreement was a nullity,” Tuff City writes. “Because of defendant Gaines’ claim of ownership in the Master, Sony UK has been collecting – but not distributing – royalties attributable to the exploitation of HNB, and has declined to do so unless and until ordered to do so … by a court.”
A spokesperson for Sony Music declined to comment. Reps for Bakar and Resnik did not immediately return requests for comment. Gaines could not immediately be reached for comment.
www.billboard.com
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