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MUSIC – Was the song “This is America” inspired (or even a little more) from another song? This is what rapper Kidd Wes claims, suing the 2019 Grammy Award-winning singer Childish Gambino for “copyright infringement”.
According to court documents, rapper Emelike Nwosuocha, better known as Kidd Wes, claims that “This is America” (below), performed by Childish, aka Donald Glover, is “obviously similar” to a song he published two years earlier on the Soundcloud platform and that you can listen a little lower.
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An “almost identical” refrain
The complaint specifies that it is a song with “lyrics, rhythms and themes […] almost identical ”, mostly found in“ chorus sections ”. The rapper also hired a musicologist to compare the two tracks, who concluded that “these similarities are probably not coincidences”.
Kidd Wes requested the opening of a lawsuit against the singer, but also against the record company of the singer “RCA” and the choirs of the song, namely Young Thug and Roc Nation. He claims damages to cover, according to him, the “lost profits” generated by this “plagiarism”.
Although no sum is mentioned, the rapper recalls that the title “This is America” has garnered “hundreds of millions of dollars”.
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The performer of the flagship title has, to date, not reacted publicly to these accusations.
In 2018, Childish Gambino had already been accused of plagiarism, for the same song, by rapper Jase Harley. The lawsuit ultimately never took place, as her manager claimed the song was composed as early as 2015.
See also on The HuffPost: She sings 15s on TikTok, a producer notices her and gathers 2 million plays on Spotify
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