Philadelphia superstar rapper Lil Uzi Vert has been laying quite low this year, all things considered. However, within the last couple of days, we have come to learn about two lawsuits revolving around them. The latest is a massive, $110 million copyright filing from Rochester, New York artist, who goes by Rief Rawyal.
Per Grouchy Greg Watkins of AllHipHop, the centerpiece of the suit is Lil Uzi Vert's October 2022 smash record, "Just Wanna Rock." Sharrief K. Bouchet, or Rief Rawyal, alleges that the Eternal Atake MC copied nearly every element of his track, "Pain and Pleasure," which he put out in August of that same year.
"[Lil Uzi Vert] copied the original hook, melody, and theme" in addition to the chant on "Pain and Pleasure" "When I rock ah ah." Brian McBrearty, a forensic musicologist and founder of Musicologize investigated the songs' similarities and the results are quite shocking.
According to McBrearty, he found a 93-97% derivation between them. He cites that tempo, structure, rhythmic patterns, the "ah" chants and lyrical phrasing around "rock" were nearly identical.
To get even more technical, Uzi and Rawyal's songs both "reside in the core band of 'allegro,'" which equates to 130–150 beats per minute. Moreover, their respective releases share the same drum pattern and rhythmic syncopation, known as "tresillo."
Lil Uzi Vert "Just Wanna Rock" Lawsuit
Lastly, both include "first-person, present-tense declarations that end with the identical word 'rock,' forming a parallel lyrical structure."
Further into Rawyal's lawsuit, he also alleges that his posts about "Pain and Pleasure" were muted or removed from Instagram and Facebook. Simultaneously, Uzi's "Just Wanna Rock" was blowing up just about everywhere.
How did this allegedly happen? Well, Rawyal also alleges that Atlantic Records and Uzi both had direct access to his material. He alleges that he was in collaboration with AR and Lanre Gaba, the now president of Hip-Hop, R&B and Global Music at the label since 2012.
Rawyal claims he provided Gaba with original songs, demos, and more. He believes this caused a "clear institutional pathway" to form for Uzi and their team to get their hands on his works. Lil Uzi Vert, Atlantic Records, Generation Now, Roc Nation, and Warner Music Group are the defendants.
The artist wants $110 million in damages, citing lost streaming revenue, sync and licensing deals, and reputational harm. Moreover, he seeks retroactive publishing credit, an ownership share and an injunction to halt further use of the song.
It's quickly turned into a hectic week ahead for Uzi, who's also dealing with a sexual harassment lawsuit from an anonymous, alleged, former assistant. Roc Nation is also a defendant, although it's allegedly been dropped already.
