When Mac Miller sampled Lord Finesse's 1995 "Hip 2 Da Game" instrumental for his song "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza" off his 2010 K.I.D.S mixtape he could have never imagined the hot water it would get him into. It's become a fairly common practice for rappers to use music from other artists for freestyles and mixtapes without being sued, but Finesse isn't buying it.
The legendary D.I.T.C. member has filed a $10 million lawsuit against Miller, his record company, Rostrum Records, and the mixtape site, Datpiff.
"This is a case about a teenage rapper- Mac Miller- copying the music from a song written, produced and performed by Lord Finesse, a hip hop legend, changing the title and then distributing it under his own name in order to launch his music career," the complaint states according to Courthouse News Service.
Since it's release in August 2010, Kids has been downloaded more than 450,000 times. And the video for "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza" has been viewed nearly 24 million times on YouTube, according to the complaint.
Finesse says Miller has profited from the unauthorized use of the song and that he only filed the lawsuit after DatPiff, Rostrum and Miller refused to respond to a cease and desist letter earlier this month.
The $10 million lawsuit "alleges copyright infringement, unfair competition, unjust enrichment, interference, deceptive trade practices, and a number of related state law claims." Finesse also seeks a permanent injunction from the court.
Mac took to Twitter to respond to the lawsuit.
"I'm supposed to be on hush but lemme speak on this real quick," Mac wrote. "Finesse and I spoke on the phone for an hour after he heard the record and cleared the air. We even planned to work on music together. All I wanted to do is shed light on a generation that inspired me. Finesse never cleared the Oscar Peterson sample on the original record. I did nothing wrong. We spoke on the phone had a good conversation, he was cool with the record. It's all love tho. I ain't even mad at dude. He still a legend. When I heard there was a problem, I reached out to him to try and solve it. No response. Lord Finesse, thank you for what u did for hip hop. Thank you for bringing my favorite rapper into the game."
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