R&B artist Chris Brown and rapper Drake are once again facing a copyright infringement lawsuit over their 2019 hit No Guidance.
Two years after a previous copyright suit over the song was dropped, artists Tykeiya Dore and Marc Stephens have sued Brown and Drake – along with several other songwriters, and a number of music publishers – alleging that No Guidance ripped off their 2016 song I Got It.
The lawsuit also seeks damages from YouTube and parent companies Alphabet and Google for what the plaintiffs say was “defamation” against Marc Stephens in a dispute over a YouTube takedown notice.
In a complaint filed with the US District Court for the District of New Jersey on Friday (October 25), Dore and Stephens allege that No Guidance’s writers took the key lyric in I Got It and changed it to “You got it.”
“The chorus of… No Guidance is a continuous use of the word[s] “you got it”, which uses the same chord progressions, tempo, pitch, key, melody, harmony, rhythm, structure, phrasing, and lyrics as plaintiffs’ song I Got It,” asserts the complaint, which can be read in full here.
“The defendants’ intentionally ‘masked’ the unlawful use of the title of the plaintiffs’ song and chorus ‘I got it’ by using the title ‘No Guidance’, which is mentioned nowhere in the chorus, and they changed “I got it” to ‘You got it,’” the complaint further alleges.
The complaint also asserts that “it’s impossible to not hear the two songs are substantially similar,” and as evidence it points to a comparison video posted to YouTube – since removed – in which commenters apparently agreed the songs were similar.
No Guidance can be heard on YouTube below, while Tikeiya’s I Got It can be heard here.
As defendants, the lawsuit names Brown and Drake, along with No Guidance co-writers Tyler Bryant (aka Velous), Nija Charles, and Michee Lebrun, and song producers Anderson Hernandez (aka Vinylz), Joshua Huizar (aka J-Louis), Teddy Walton, and Noah Shebib (aka 40).
Also named as defendants are Sony Music Entertainment’s RCA Records, and a large group of music publishers with interests in the track.
In an unusual twist, the lawsuit also names YouTube and its parent companies Alphabet and Google, which the complaint alleges benefited financially from views of No Guidance’s video on YouTube, and defamed defendant Marc Stephens by claiming that he had filed “fraudulent” takedown requests on No Guidance.
According to the complaint, in May of this year, YouTube deleted Marc Stephens’ YouTube channel over “concern[s] that some of the info in your takedown request may be fraudulent.”
Some days later, the video service notified Stephens that his channel was permanently deleted, and that he was banned from creating any other YouTube channels.
“No Guidance… uses the same chord progressions, tempo, pitch, key, melody, harmony, rhythm, structure, phrasing, and lyrics as plaintiffs’ song I Got It.”
Lawsuit filed against Chris Brown and Drake’s No Guidance
After a series of back-and-forth communications, in which Stephens threatened to sue YouTube for defamation over the claim that his takedown notice may have been fraudulent, in July of this year YouTube reportedly backed down and reinstated Stephens’ channel, concluding that it was “terminated incorrectly.”
“However, we’ve reviewed this matter and found that you haven’t identified a work that is subject to copyright. For this reason, we can’t process your request,” YouTube said in an email to Stephens.
The lawsuit asserts that I Got It was published in 2016, and uploaded to YouTube in 2017, but a copyright on the song was only registered on July 13, 2019, several weeks after No Guidance was released.
No Guidance was a major hit in 2019, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and receiving 8x Platinum certification from the RIAA. The track went 2x Platinum in the UK, and 3x Platinum in Canada. The official video on YouTube has more than 480 million views, and it has been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify.
The complaint alleges that No Guidance co-writer Vinylz accessed I Got It through Benji Filmz’ YouTube Channel, while another co-writer, Nija Charles, received a copy of the song from Tikeiya’s uncle, Jesse Spruils.
After No Guidance was released, the complaint claims, Spruils contacted Charles “to confront her about stealing the chorus of plaintiffs’ song,” but because he felt “incompetent, humiliated, and embarrassed,” he never told Tikeiya about it.
The lawsuit seeks “damages and equitable relief in the amount of no less than $5 million.”
The new suit comes little more than three years after Chris Brown and Drake faced a previous lawsuit over No Guidance, in which a singer and producer, Brandon Cooper and Timothy Valentine, alleged that No Guidance infringed the copyright on their track I Love Your Dress.
The two plaintiffs agreed to drop the lawsuit in September 2022.
Both Brown and Drake have faced a number of copyright infringement suits in recent years. UK music publisher Greensleeves sued Brown in 2021 over his 2017 track Privacy. That lawsuit was settled in 2022.
Drake was sued last year by Ghanaian artist Obrafour, who alleged the Canadian rapper used a sample from one of Obrafour’s works without authorization on the track Calling My Name.Music Business Worldwide