Hip-hop icon Kendrick Lamar's 2009 self-titled EP featured him spitting bars over an instrumental break from Bill Withers for "I Do This." Now, the song has landed Lamar in some legal hot water.
TMZ reports that Mattie Music Group, which apparently holds the rights to Withers' 1975 song "Don't You Want to Stay," is suing Lamar on the grounds that the track "consists of nothing more than new rap and hip hop lyrics set to the existing music of 'Don't You Want to Stay.'" Lamar's "I Do This" features fellow TDE rapper Jay Rock and was produced by Sounwave.
Lamar's 2009 EP was released digitally and on CD, though it is now widely available for free through mixtape-hosting sites such as DatPiff. It was also his first release under his own name, having previously released mixtapes as K-Dot. You can hear both tracks from Lamar and Withers in the players below.
Lamar and TDE have so far made no comments on the lawsuit.
TMZ reports that Mattie Music Group, which apparently holds the rights to Withers' 1975 song "Don't You Want to Stay," is suing Lamar on the grounds that the track "consists of nothing more than new rap and hip hop lyrics set to the existing music of 'Don't You Want to Stay.'" Lamar's "I Do This" features fellow TDE rapper Jay Rock and was produced by Sounwave.
Lamar's 2009 EP was released digitally and on CD, though it is now widely available for free through mixtape-hosting sites such as DatPiff. It was also his first release under his own name, having previously released mixtapes as K-Dot. You can hear both tracks from Lamar and Withers in the players below.
Lamar and TDE have so far made no comments on the lawsuit.