Looks like Frank Ocean will have some explaining to do in copyright court soon.
Ocean is being accused of illegally sampling Mary J. Blige’s 1992 hit “Real Love” during the bridge and outro of his song “Rich Kids” from his Grammy Award winning debut album, channelOrange.
If there is a bright side to Ocean’s legal situation, it may be that the suit is being pursued by litigation happy company, TufAmerica.
Despite apparently owning less than 4 percent of the copyright on “Real Love,” TufAmerica is suing Ocean’s label Def Jam, it’s parent label Universal, and Universal’s owner, Vivendi.
As previously reported here at ro, TufAmerica has earned quite the reputation in the industry for filing frivolous illegal sampling lawsuits against popular artists.
We will see how this one plays out, but the smart money says Ocean and Def Jam don’t have much to worry about.
