Childish Gambino just scored a big win in a lawsuit against him over his hit song, “This is America”. A federal appeals court has upheld a financial penalty ruling, forcing rapper Kidd Wes—who filed the lawsuit—to pay $286,475 in legal fees.
Wes previously lost a copyright dispute against Gambino, whose real name is Donald Glover. The claim was that the 2018 track copied portions of Wes’s 2016 song, “Made in America”. According to a report from HOT 97, the courts rejected this notion because of a crucial legal element. Wes had not registered a copyright for the arrangement that he claimed was copied.
Unfortunately for Wes, his case is said to have lacked an appropriate legal foundation. This is because the law requires a copyright to be in place before filing infringement claims.
Kidd Wes nearly had to pay close to $1 million in legal fees before a court reduced the amount
Initially, A lower court considered awarding over $934,000 in legal fees, but the presiding judge reduced it to $286,475. The court believed that the lesser amount would “discourage weak litigation while avoiding excessive financial harm,” per HOT 97.
Wes chose to appeal the lesser fee, arguing that it was still excessive. The appellate panel rejected his appeal and upheld the original ruling. Judges also noted that Wes had been warned about the missing copyright registration but continued with his lawsuit.
“This is America” actually started as a Drake Diss track
To call “This Is America” successful is kind of an understatement. Not only was it the biggest song of 2018. But its popularity was also reflected at the Grammy Awards the following year. It won every single category it was nominated in: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap/Sung Performance, and Best Music Video.
What’s kind of interesting about “This is America” is that it started as a jokey diss track against Drake. “This idea for the song started as a joke, to be completely honest, “Gambino revealed in a GQ cover story back in 2023. “‘This Is America’ – that was all we had was that line.”
“It started as a Drake diss, to be honest, as like a funny way of doing it,” he added. “But then I was like, ‘This s*** sounds kind of hard, though.’ So I was like, ‘Let me play with it.’”
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