Kendrick Lamar & TDE Sued For Copyright Infringement Of Bill Withers Song

Kendrick Lamar’s music is facing another lawsuit, this one from Bill Withers’ publishing group over a sample used in the Compton, California rapper’s 2013 song “I Do This.” According to Billboard, Mattie Music Group is suing Lamar and his label, Top Dawg Entertainment, for damages for copying the production of “Don’t Want You To Stay” off Withers’ 1975 album, Making Music, Making Friends.

“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 Want You To Stay,'” the suit says. TMZ also reports the lawsuit, saying that the company is demanding Lamar to stop using the sample.

“I Do This” appears on Lamar’s self-titled EP, which is available for purchase at select retailers including Amazon. It is mostly distributed for free as a mixtape. Lamar has faced recent lawsuits over the single art for “The Blacker the Berry” and for sampling The Alan Parsons Project’s  “Old and Wise” on “Keisha’s Song (Her Pain)” and for asample on “Rigamortus.”