Barry White Estate Accuses This Duo Of Copyright Infringement, But Not Future And Metro Boomin
Barry White’s estate filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on Thursay (Oct. 3) over a sample used in Future and Metro Boomin’s hit single, “Like That,” but the respective rapper and producer aren’t being accused of any wrongdoing.
Instead, the late singer’s estate claimed that Rodney-O (Rodney Oliver) and Joe Cooley, the duo behind the 1988 Hip-Hop record, “Everlasting Bass,” stole “key elements” from White’s 1973 tune, “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby.”
Per Billboard, attorneys for White’s estate stated they waited almost four decades to sue over the song because it was “released prior to the internet and was not widely distributed,” leaving the estate vulnerable and “unaware of the song when it was first released.”
“Everlasting Bass” is the most prominent sample in Future and Metro’s collab—to the point where Rodney-O and Joe were listed as co-writers on the chart-topping single.
In the complaint, White’s estate further accuses “Like That” of infringing on the crooner’s copyrights. “‘Like That’ copies substantial elements of ‘I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Babe’… including but not limited to the iconic, immediately recognizable bass line,” the estate wrote.
Ironically, Rodney-O spoke with VIBE back in April and praised how Future, Metro, and Kendrick Lamar brilliantly flipped the sample.
“It is crazy because the song was big when it came out and for it to be even bigger now all these years later, it’s crazy,” the rap veteran exclaimed. “I heard the song. I knew it was good, but when it comes out and the world hears it how you hear it and react to it the way you reacted to it, that’s confirmation. Every song that I’ve cleared, they’ve sent it to me prior and I’ve been able to check it out. A lot of people have used the same sample in the past, but when I heard [‘Like That’], I was like ‘they totally demolished it.’”
“Like That” was the third single from Future and Metro’s joint album, We Don’t Trust You. It was one of the early tracks that took shots at Drake during his beef with K. Dot.
White’s “I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Babe” was also a commercial success that peaked No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1973 and spent 18 weeks on the chart.
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