Rick Astley sues Yung Gravy over 'Never Gonna Give You Up' imitation

[Teletubby 144,854]

Rick Astley is suing rapper Yung Gravy for using an alleged impersonation of his voice on a recent single.

The singer's 1987 worldwide hit Never Gonna Give You Up is sampled in Yung Gravy's song Betty (Get Money).

Only the instrumentals of the original song had been licensed by the song's writers for use in the track.

But the new song also features an alleged imitation of Astley's vocals, something the singer said had not been agreed. 

The lawsuit claims that Astley's distinctive voice is a resource that needs to be carefully managed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64429565

 

 

[JazzGa 14,611]

This is one occasion in a music copyright lawsuit where I actually think the plaintiff should win  Usually I'm of the opinion that no one should try to own and copyright the building blocks of music-- scales, chord progressions, simple melodies and drum patterns that pop artists generally get sued over. 

But in this case, Yung Gravy's song would very likely never have been a hit if it wasn't for people recognizing Rick Astley's voice in it. His voice is an essential part of the track. I thought for sure it was a collaboration of some sort, or Astley's camp was at least compensated for it, but yeah you can't just use other people's voices without their permission (and that should extend to AI "impressions" of people's voices that are presented to audiences as the genuine thing and not a parody)

[RaraBitch 527]

Sample? That's a whole *ss cover 

[Charmz 4,137]

I like this song lol the original is a legend and Yung Gravy’s is just a fun tik tok song, I don’t think the lawsuit will go anywhere

[Zombiecat 15,947]

Yung Gravy?

These names 

[ALittleMonsta 1,529]

In my opinion this song is okay.. I mean I stand for art but for me this is meh... unoriginal, lazy etc kind of art.
Song about money, very chappy and too sharp of transitions, chappy production overall. It kinda sounds like they just downloaded the NGGUU (never gonna give you up) instrumental mp3 and played around with it

It's a funny song (in a good way) though

I know this thread isn't about whether this song is good or not but I just wanted to say that,
the lawsuit is valid

[Emvee 8,149]

I wish I was a gilf so I could hook up with Yung Gravy