IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: A Halloween-timed ‘horrorcore’ lawsuit, (Nov 1, 2024)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

Rap group Three 6 Mafia takes on hip hop duo Suicideboys for the alleged appropriation of three dozen songs.

A New Orleans hip hop duo appropriated Glock in My Draws, Tired of Dis Shit, So High, Pimpin and Robbin, and 32 other musical compositions from a hip hop group in Memphis, a new federal lawsuit claims. The copyright infringement lawsuit, the second between the two groups in the last four years, alleges that the New Orleans duo has effectively “made a career stealing and profiting from” the Memphis band’s work—as well as “repeatedly and shamelessly appropriating [the group’s] artistic and cultural identities” (Beauregard v. Arceneaux, No. 2:24-cv-09259 (C.D. Cal. filed Oct. 28, 2024)).

The lawsuit was brought by Three 6 Mafia, a rap group founded in Tennessee in 1991 that has gone on to cult classic status as one of the original “horrorcore” groups. (The group, now in its fourth decade of performing, was among those featured in a New York Times article yesterday about its surprising popularity among a new generation of listeners “who came of age with access to nearly the entire catalog of recorded music via streaming services and social media.”) The target of the lawsuit is Suicideboys, a hip-hop due from Louisiana that has built its own cult following despite having “avoided nearly all the trappings of the contemporary music machine,” one profile has it.

But the duo behind Suicideboys—which is formally named $uicideboy$—didn’t earn their success all on their own, Three 6 Mafia has long contended. In a 2020 lawsuit against the band and its record label, the Memphis band accused Suicideboys of purloining 35 different musical compositions, including works such as Mask and Da Glock, Smoked Out, Loced Out, Where’s Da Bud, Crucifix, Let’s Start a Riot, and Nine to Yo Dome. The lawsuit eventually settled under terms that were not publicly disclosed.

But earlier this year, the new lawsuit contends, Three 6 Mafia “discovered that the Suicideboys were back to their old ways, stealing songs from Plaintiffs that were unquestionably not licensed under the terms of the parties’ settlement agreement.” Moreover, the lawsuit contends, the group discovered “additional infringements” that were not raised in the 2020 lawsuit. The New Orleans band’s alleged misconduct was done “to trade off and profit from Three 6 Mafia’s original sound and hard-earned success in the hip hop industry,” the lawsuit alleged, as shown from “the use of Plaintiffs’ original song titles as their own and the further misappropriation of Plaintiffs’ artistic and cultural identities by copying their appearances with dreadlocks, tattoos, and baggy clothing.

The lawsuit brings a single count of copyright infringement against Suicideboys and its record label. In addition to attorney fees and injunctive relief, the lawsuit also demands the maximum $150,000 in statutory fees per song—or $5.4 million in total—in relief.

The Case is No. 2:24-cv-09259.

Judge: Anderson, P.

Attorneys: Jackson Samuel Trugman (King Holmes Paterno and Soriano, LLC) for Paul D. Beauregard.

Companies: G*59 Records, Inc.; G*59 Records LLC; UMG Recordings, Inc.; Caroline Distribution; Capitol Music Group; Capitol Records LLC

News: Copyright CaliforniaNews GCNNews