Copyright Infringement Case: Tracy Chapman v. Nicki Minaj

In 2018 rap/hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj collaborated on a song with rapper Nas which was inspired by Shelly Thunder’s song “Sorry”. The song was unable to be released after both artist failed to realize the song wasn’t original work and sampled Tracy Chapman’s “Baby Can I Hold You” which she denied them the license to use her work. Chapman filed a law suit against Minaj claiming copyright infringement after the track was distributed to New York radio station DJ, Funkmaster Flex. Since the work was never officially released, the Court ruled in favor of Minaj’s claim to fair use stating it fell under experimentation, however, felt the issue of distribution needed to be resolved by jury but was eventually solved with a settlement between Minaj and Chapman. This case was extremely controversial, specifically in the Hip-hop community due to mixtape culture, because it brought into question whether copyright infringement laws applied to art created in experimentation sessions prior to even being released and distributed.