Playboi Carti is facing a lawsuit brought by Eric Mercer Jr. (aka Blakk Soul) who says he was never paid for the use of his vocals on Carti’s 2017 track Kelly K.
In a lawsuit filed in a federal court in California on Friday (January 24), Mercer says Playboi Carti and his company, Cash Carti Music LLC, failed to make good on a deal to give Mercer a 5% ownership stake in the song.
Kelly K is a track off Playboi Carti’s self-titled 2017 debut album. Both the album and the track have been certified platinum by the RIAA. The official audio of Kelly K has 8.3 million views on YouTube, and nearly 55 million streams on Spotify.
“Despite the commercial success of the song and the album, Mr. Mercer had yet to be compensated for his contributions to the song, and has yet to receive a single dollar, or even an accounting of what is owed to him,” stated Mercer’s complaint, which was filed with the US District Court for the Central District of California, and can be read in full here.
The copyright lawsuit names Playboi Carti (legal name Jordan Carter), Cash Carti Music, Interscope, and Universal Music Group as defendants.
Mercer released his first album under the Blakk Soul moniker in 2020, but the singer, songwriter and recording engineer was known in the music industry for years prior, having worked with such artists as Dr. Dre, Macklemore, Anderson .Paak, and Justin Timberlake.
Mercer’s complaint says he recorded vocals with Jacob Dutton, aka Jake One, who is listed as a producer on Kelly K, and that the vocals were used on the track. But he says he was only approached by Playboi Carti and Cash Carti Music two years after Kelly K’s release.
“On July 19, 2019, over two years after the song’s release, CCM and Carter presented Mr. Mercer with a split sheet, in which it was proposed that Mr. Mercer would receive a five percent ownership interest in the song in exchange for his contributions to and vocals on the song,” the complaint stated.
Mercer signed the agreement in January 2020, but after not receiving any payment, he rescinded the deal, meaning “their use of the song, which contained his vocals, was thus unauthorized.”
“Mr. Mercer ha[s] yet to be compensated for his contributions to the song, and has yet to receive a single dollar, or even an accounting of what is owed to him.”
Legal complaint against Playboi Carti
Mercer alleges copyright infringement, breach of contract, and unjust infringement. He also alleges breach of the right of publicity – the right to one’s own name, likeness, voice and other attributes.
“Mr. Mercer’s right to privacy and specifically his right to publicity” was violated “when the defendants released the recording that included Mr. Mercer’s vocals without any authorization,” the complaint states.
Mercer is seeking a minimum of $75,000, including costs and attorneys’ fees.
In other recent copyright lawsuit news, last week, Mike Caren’s indie music company APG sued Create Music Group, claiming that Create engaged in “brazen thievery” of APG’s songs and recordings.
At the start of January, meanwhile, Travis Scott, SZA and Future were sued by RocNation-signed artist Victory Boyd, and her publishing company Songs of Glory, for allegedly ripping off her song Like The Way It Sounds to create their 2023 hit, Telekinesis.
In other litigation news involving UMG, last fall, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst sued the company over alleged unpaid royalties involving a contract that Limp Bizkit members had signed in the 1990s that involved Interscope as distributor.
UMG won a partial victory in that lawsuit earlier this month, when the US District Court rejected Durst’s motion to nullify the 1990s contracts. The court also concluded that if Durst’s lawyers don’t file a copyright claim against UMG, the court won’t have jurisdiction, and the case will be dismissed.Music Business Worldwide
