Roc Nation-signed artist Victory Boyd is suing Travis Scott, SZA and Future, accusing them of copying her ”copyrighted and registered” song “Like The Way It Sounds” for the trio’s UTOPIA collab “TELEKINESIS.”
In legal documents obtained by Music Business Worldwide, Boyd claims that she “wrote the lyrics, then completed and published a demo” of “Like The Way It Sounds” in November 2019, and shared a recording of the track with Ye via a voice note. She states that he had plans of releasing a track based on her demo, which was first titled “Future Bounce” and later renamed to “Future Sounds” and “Ultrasounds.” Ye (who was not named a defendant) ended up not releasing the track at all when he dropped DONDA in 2021. She asserts that she had “planned to finish working on her Original Work and commercially release it through her recording agreement with RocNation.”
Boyd alleges that Scott gained access to the song in a Wyoming recording studio when Ye played it for him, going on to use it as the basis for “TELEKINESIS.” She further accuses the UTOPIA track of copying “substantial, salient, and original aspects” of her song, including lyrics like “I can see the future is looking like we level through the sky, I can’t wait to live in glory in eternal lasting life, won’t you take the wheel and I recline and I sit still – might as well turn up now” as well as other song elements. Although she was credited as a co-writer on the song’s metadata, she was unaware that her song had been commercially released. She also claims that she was then offered an 8% writing credit, which she argues is insufficient due to the degree of the supposed infringement.
In addition to suing the artists and naming Cactus Jack, Epic Records and Sony Music Entertainment as defendants, Boyd also accused La Flame’s brand partner Audemars Piguet of using the song in an ad campaign without her consent after she previously objected to it. She asserts that the luxury watch brand was “aware that the Infringing Work was a copy of the Original Work.”
Boyd is now seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent further use of the song, citing “substantial and irreparable injury if Defendants’ are allowed to continue their infringement of the Original Work pending the resolution of this action.” She is requesting a jury trial.
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