Kendrick Lamar has a legal situation on his hands.
The “Alright” rapper has been slapped with a lawsuit claiming that his song “I Do This” infringes on the 1975 Bill Withers song “Don’t You Want to Stay.”
In the suit, Golden Withers Music and Musidex Music, which claim to own the copyright on the Withers tune, claim that Lamar’s “I Do This” is a wholesale lift of “Don’t You Want to Stay” with new lyrics thrown on top of it.
“The musical composition ‘I Do This’ consists of nothing more than new, so-called rap or hip hop lyrics, set to the existing music of ‘Don’t You Want to Stay,’” reads the lawsuit, filed in federal court in California. “Defendants did not create any new music for ‘I Do This’ and Defendants did not simply ‘sample’ some of the existing music of ‘Don’t You Want to Stay.’ Rather, the music of ‘I Do This’ is a direct and complete copy of the music of ‘Don’t You Want to Stay.’”
The suit claims that Lamar’s lawyer has been warned about the alleged copyright infringement, but Lamar has remained unrepentant.
“Plaintiffs are informed and believe that Defendant Lamar has openly admitted that his musical composition ‘I Do This’ copies the music of ‘Don’t You Want to Stay’ with a thumb to the nose, catch me if you can attitude,” the lawsuit reads.
Alleging copyright infringement, the suit is seeking an injunction against using “Don’t You Want to Stay” as well as unspecified damages.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.