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Tracy Chapman is in the process of suing rapper Nicki Minaj for damages associated with her using her artistic property.
This summer, we reported that Nicki Minaj sent her fans after folk singer Tracy Chapman. The pairing was odd but the two were connected because Minaj wanted Chapman to sign off on a sample of her song “Baby Can I Hold You,” for Minaj’s track “Sorry.”
Minaj asked fans to reach out to Chapman so she could release the track that featured Nas in time for the original release date of her album Queen. But despite their best efforts, Chapman said no. And Nicki made sure she let fans know about that too in a tweet that read: “Sis said no.”
Minaj’s legion of fans then went on a mission to spam what they thought was Chapman’s Instagram page. They called her ugly, irrelevant and attempted to shame her for denying their favorite rapper. But the joke was on them. It was just a fan page. For all we know, Chapman does not have a social media presence.
Now, Tracy Chapman, who we haven’t seen in the public sphere for a while now, came forward to sue Minaj for the sample claiming that “Sorry” “compromises half of the lyrics and vocal melody.” And as a result, she is requesting damages because, despite her declining the sample, Minaj debuted the track on the radio with Funkmaster Flex on August 11. It was the same day she announced that Chapman didn’t allow her to use the song. It has since been removed from the internet but the damage has been done.
And the folk singer is coming for that coin. I understand that Minaj didn’t directly make money from the song but it was certainly used as a promotional effort in the marketing of Queen. Since Chapman rejected Minaj’s request, she should have recognized that she’s an artist and sensitive about her sh*t. Furthermore, as a Black woman and fellow musician, who also writes her own songs, Minaj should have been able to respect the fact that Chapman didn’t want her art to be used in this way. Instead, she acted as if she was entitled to a work she didn’t create. And that’s just not right.
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