{"id":491518,"date":"2019-10-22T07:33:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T13:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=902142"},"modified":"2019-10-22T07:33:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T13:33:24","slug":"yellowcard-sue-juice-wrld-for-copyright-infringement-over-lucid-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/yellowcard-sue-juice-wrld-for-copyright-infringement-over-lucid-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellowcard Sue Juice WRLD for Copyright Infringement Over \u2018Lucid Dreams\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yellowcard has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Juice WRLD<\/a>, claiming the rapper\u2019s hit \u201cLucid Dreams\u201d copies their 2006 song \u201cHolly Wood Died.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suit alleges that Juice WRLD and his producers knowingly copied \u201cHolly Wood Died,\u201d and that \u201cLucid Dreams\u201d \u201cdirectly misappropriates quantitative and qualitatively important portions of [\u2018Holly Wood Died\u2019] in a manner that is easily recognizable to the ordinary observer.\u201d It adds that \u201cLucid Dreams\u201d is \u201cnot only substantially similar to [\u2018Holly Wood Died\u2019], but in some places virtually identical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Juice WRLD (real name Jarad A. Higgins), the suit names as co-defendants \u201cLucid Dreams\u201d co-writer Taz Taylor (real name Danny Lee Snodgress, Jr.) and producer Nick Mira, along with their respective publishing entities. BMG Rights Management, the song\u2019s publisher, was also named, along with Juice WRLD\u2019s record label, Grade A, and its parent company, Interscope. Yellowcard are seeking damages in excess of $15 million.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLucid Dreams\u201d was released in May 2018 and became a massive hit for Juice WRLD, anchoring his debut studio album, Goodbye and Good Riddance<\/i>. The song is centered around a sample of Sting\u2019s \u201cShape of My Heart,\u201d but in their new lawsuit Yellowcard allege that while Juice WRLD and his collaborators licensed that song, \u201cthey decided to willfully infringe [\u2018Holly Wood Died\u2019].\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to Rolling Stone<\/em>, Yellowcard\u2019s lawyer, Richard Busch, said, \u201cThis was not a lawsuit the guys wanted to file. They put all of the parties on notice to try to resolve it. That notice was pretty much ignored leaving them with no real choice. As alleged in the complaint, this is not just a generic emo rap song, but is a blatant copy of significant original compositional elements of \u2018Holly Wood Died\u2019 in several respects.\u201d<\/p>\n

A representative for Juice WRLD did not immediately return Rolling Stone<\/i>\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims that there are melodic elements in \u201cLucid Dreams\u201d and \u201cHolly Wood Died\u201d that are \u201cnot only substantially similar, but\u2026 in places are virtually identical.\u201d The suit prominently cites the similarities between the first verses of both songs, and includes transcriptions of each, claiming there are 18 notes in the \u201cLucid Dreams\u201d verse that are the same in pitch and synchronicity as \u201cHolly Wood Died,\u201d and eight additional notes that are the same in terms of pitch and almost the same in terms of synchronicity.<\/p>\n

The suit also highlights a \u201cmelodic idiosyncrasy\u201d that is allegedly used similarly in both \u201cHolly Wood Died\u201d and \u201cLucid Dreams\u201d \u2014 a \u201cmelisma,\u201d which is a string of different notes used to sing a single syllable of text.<\/p>\n

The suit claims that the melisma in \u201cHolly Wood Died\u201d appears at the end of the phrase \u201clike razors they cut through the heart,\u201d with the pitch on \u201cheart\u201d shifting from C to A; in \u201cLucid Dreams,\u201d the suit claims, the melisma falls at the end of the line, \u201cI know that you want me dead,\u201d with the word \u201cdead\u201d also sung in the same two pitches, C to A.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe high degree of objective similarity between the [\u2018Holly Wood Died\u2019] and [\u2018Lucid Dreams\u2019] extends well beyond the possibility of coincidence and could only reasonably be the result of an act of copying,\u201d the suit claims.<\/p>\n

Along with listing the similarities between the two tracks, the suit seeks to prove that Juice WRLD would have been familiar with Yellowcard\u2019s work, specifically \u201cHolly Wood Died\u201d and the album it appeared on, Lights and Sounds<\/i>.<\/p>\n

While the suit does not include any direct quotes from Juice WRLD where he mentions either the song or album, it does claim that Juice WRLD would have likely been familiar with Yellowcard because he\u2019s cited their emo and pop-punk peers, such as Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters and the Devil Wears Prada, as influences in past interviews.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also quotes an interview Juice WRLD gave in which he said he first started listening to emo and pop-punk in the fifth grade, so that he had something to talk about with a \u201creally Emo\u201d girl he had a crush on.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon information and belief, based upon his current age, these initial events would have occurred in approximately 2006,\u201d the suit claims. \u201cThus, upon information and belief, at the time Defendant Juice WRLD began studying the Emo genre of music, \u2018Holly Wood Died\u2019 would have been recently released,\u201d the suit claims.<\/p>\n