A music video exists for the 2010 song “Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza” by Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller. The track appeared on Miller’s mixtape K.I.D.S., which Rolling Stone said “became a breakout Internet hit for the then-rising rapper.” However, hip hop artist and producer Lord Finesse claimed that “Kool Aid” used beats from his own 1995 track, “Hip 2 Da Game.”
In July 2012, Finesse filed a $10 million copyright infringement lawsuit against Miller. Rolling Stone reported that the complaint alleges that K.I.D.S. was downloaded more than 500,000 times and streamed more than 450,000 times. “This is a case about a teenage rapper — Mac Miller — copying the music from a song written, produced and performed by Lord Finesse, a hip-hop legend, changing the title and then distributing it under his own name in order to launch his music career,” the lawsuit stated.
Rostrum Records, Miller’s label who was also named in the lawsuit along with the mixtape website DatPiff.com, challenged Finesse’s claims. “Mac never pretended that the ‘Hip 2 Da Game’ beat was his, despite what’s being said in the suit,” a Rostrum statement said. “Lord Finesse was given credit on both the video and the mixtape from the very beginning. We’ve never distributed ‘Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza’ for sale on iTunes and have consistently policed digital retailers and other sites to make sure that no pirates were ever illegally selling the song. Lord Finesse has known about ‘Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza’ for a long time and never objected to the use. For some reason, he has very recently changed his mind.”
On January 16, 2013, the Beaver County Times reported that Miller settled the copyright infringement lawsuit out of court, although the terms of the settlement were not disclosed. We have additional information about intellectual property litigation on our website, and you may be entitled to seek monetary damages if another individual or business has misappropriated your company’s copyrighted material. Contact our firm at [number] or complete the form on this page to let our Los Angeles copyright infringement lawyer review your case.
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