Category: Music

THE BIG STORY: Drake is facing a copyright lawsuit over his chart-topping Iceman single “Janice STFU,” filed by a songwriter who says the star copied the song’s infectious hook from an earlier demo. And both sides are playing for keeps.

The new case, brought by Aviel Calev Hirschfield, claims the track “shamelessly” copies his demo, which he says he sent directly to “Janice” producers FNZ. He says Drake’s hook is “literally identical” to his — “word-for-word, note-for-note, beat-by-beat, the exact same chorus.”

Meanwhile, Drake isn’t just denying the allegations. In a scathing response statement, his team called the case a “manufactured and baseless attempt to exploit Drake’s name” and that “Drake wrote this song and has no connection or knowledge of this person, full stop.”

Taken together, that all means this is not your run-of the-mill song-theft case, where a complete rando and his no-name lawyer appear out of the woodwork to allege that a huge hit sounds sorta, kinda, somewhat similar to his, and then the star rigidly vows to “vigorously defend” themselves.

Repped by a well-known Hollywood firm, Hirshfield says he has proof that he wrote eight lines of lyrics that appeared verbatim in Drake’s song. And the star is not vaguely denying it — he’s saying these claims are completely made up. According to court filings, Drake’s team believes Hirshfield “manipulated the metadata” to essentially forge evidence to support his accusations.

Those are entirely irreconcilable positions. Which one will win out? Well, that’s what litigation is for.

You’re reading the Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, subscribe here.

Other top stories this week…

–Summer Walker’s dispute with Interscope is shining a new spotlight on California’s seven-year rule — a state labor law that has one massive, music-industry-sized loophole.

-Days after the Walker-Interscope case was filed, news broke that the singer was suing her management firm LVRN in a separate case, accusing them of defrauding her by skimming money.

-The Supreme Court refused to overturn Cyril Vetter’s landmark win that extended copyright termination globally, rejecting an appeal by major labels that warned it would cause “chaos” for the music business.

-The former gang leader convicted of murdering Tupac Shakur, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the 1996 killing of the rap legend.

–Mariah Carey won a ruling dismissing a long-running lawsuit claiming she defamed her brother in her bestselling 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

-A new lawsuit claimed that the rapper Cordae is violating his record deal by teaming up with Anderson .Paak for their upcoming collab album Heavy is the Crown.

-The Department of Justice sued a ticket broker over accusations it made $120 million reselling millions of tickets to Pitbull, Luke Bryan and Post Malone concerts — a far larger case than previous crackdowns.

–Dua Lipa’s attorneys urged a judge to let her proceed with a lawsuit accusing Samsung of putting her face on millions of TV boxes without permission: “This case is straightforward.”

–Pooh Shiesty’s lawyers told a judge he’s being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day for no reason while he awaits trial on charges that he held Gucci Mane at gunpoint.

-Universal Music Group and Sony Music filed a new legal case seeking to force DistroKid to disclose how many AI songs it uploads to streamers, arguing it’s crucial evidence in the battle against Suno.

–Dolly Parton’s nephew urged a judge to lift the restraining order against him, arguing he never made serious threats of violence against anyone connected to the late star’s estate.

–Chance the Rapper won another battle in his legal war with ex-manager Pat Corcoran, securing a judgment that could come out to around $1.5 million.

-The estate of Drakeo the Ruler reached a settlement to resolve litigation against Live Nation and other companies over his fatal backstage stabbing at a Los Angeles hip-hop festival in 2021.

–Beyoncé’s company blasted the refiling of a copyright case over a sample on the Renaissance track “Alien Superstar,” urging a judge to end it for good — and punish the plaintiff with monetary sanctions.

-Ye (formerly Kanye West) was ordered to pay a construction contractor $321,000 — double a previous version — over on-the-job injuries suffered while renovating the rapper’s Malibu mansion.

Gunna joins an exclusive club on the Billboard Hot 100 this week.

The rapper scores his 100th career entry on the chart dated Oct. 24, as “Pop It” debuts at No. 55. He becomes just the 25th artist in the Hot 100’s 68-year history to tally 100 or more entries.

“Pop It” arrives with 4.7 million radio airplay audience impressions and 4.6 million U.S. streams in the Oct. 9-15 tracking week, according to Luminate. It was released Oct. 9 via Atlantic Records, alongside a video featuring tennis star Coco Gauff.

The song is also off to a quick start at radio, opening at No. 16 on Rap Airplay, No. 26 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and No. 29 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay.

“Pop It” is the first single from Gunna’s upcoming seventh studio album, Splurge.

Gunna first appeared on Billboard’s charts just over 10 years ago (Sept. 17, 2016) as a featured act on Young Thug’s “Floyd Mayweather” (also featuring Travis Scott and Gucci Mane), which debuted on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. He earned his first Hot 100 entry on June 2, 2018, via another featured turn, on Lil Baby’s “Life Goes On,” also featuring Lil Uzi Vert (No. 80 debut; No. 74 peak).

Later that year, he landed his first Hot 100 entry in a lead role via his collaboration with Lil Baby, “Drip Too Hard,” which climbed to No. 4 and became the first of his four top 10s. He’s since returned to the region with “Lemonade,” with Internet Money, featuring Don Toliver and Nav (No. 6, 2020); “Pushin P,” with Future and featuring Young Thug (No. 7, 2022); and “Fukumean” (No. 4, 2023).

Gunna is the fourth artist to join the 100 Hot 100 hits club this year, after J. Cole, Ariana Grande and Rod Wave. Drake has the most entries, with 407, followed by Taylor Swift (281) and Future (246).

Here’s an updated look at all 25 acts with at least 100 career Hot 100 hits:

The stars, they really are just like us. Adam Levine proved it on Monday night’s (Oct. 19) The Voice when he let down his pop star armor for a moment to help his contestants Amanda Mikkel and Julia Clark feel less stressed out about their Battle showdown.

Teaming up with guest team mentor Alex Warren, Levine tried to tamp down the nerves he could sense in the two singers after tasking them with singing Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” for their Battle round.

According to EW, sensing their anxiety as the pair huddled around the piano in rehearsal to get the soaring ballad just right he shared a story about a time when he did the same thing, to disastrous results.

“Just to tell you a story about sitting around the piano that was really uncomfortable,” Levine said. “I sang ‘Surfer Girl,’ and I was doing it in font of Brian Wilson. Brian Wilson is, like, my hero. And he stared at me the whole time. It was a bright room, and I could tell he wasn’t happy. I finished it, and he didn’t have one word for me.”

The fatal flop in front of the late Beach Boys co-founder and songwriter who died last June at age 82 was devastating to Levine, who actually performed the 1963 Billboard Hot 100 No. 7 hit with a reunited Beach Boys at the 2012 Grammy Awards. “If you want to know what uncomfortable is? That was uncomfortable,” Levine assured them.

Warren also made sure the two women knew that feeling out of place on stage is part of it. “We know exactly what this is like,” the Grammy-nominated “Ordinary” singer told them. “We’ve definitely played rooms where no one wanted us there. We’ve also played rooms where people were just staring at us intently.”

As it turned out, the pair needn’t have worried, as they both nailed the moving ballad in their own unique styles. Queen Latifah assured the pair, saying, “y’all can stand wherever you want on that stage, you still gonna be beautiful,” as they appeared to be confused about where their marks were. She praised Mikkel for her choosing “challenging and unusual” songs throughout her run on the show, and gave Clark props for her vocal tone and texture, while Riley Green said they took a tricky song and made it their own.

When it came to Levine, he said the singers sang “really, really well” and did a better job “individually than as a team,” as their vocals styles never really found a way to blend. When he asked if they were nervous, Mikkel immediately said “very,” as Levine shared that he “felt a lot of nerves” coming from both of them.

“I can see how the nerves can get to you,” Levine said. “Whoever I’m gonna pick at this point, moving forward, we have got to tackle nerves. It’s a huge part of this, and this is supposed to be fun, right? And you’ve got to do your best, and part of doing your best is hopefully getting away from the nervousness that can paralyze you. But it’s hard. I get it.”

Levine ended up going with Mikkel, who will move on to Cut Week. The Voice airs every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.

Watch Mikkel and Clark’s performance below.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (Oct. 19) refused to overturn a landmark ruling that extended copyright termination globally, rejecting an appeal by major labels that warnted it would cause “chaos” for the music business.

The justices affirmed a novel decision, won in January by Cyril Vetter over his 1963 rock classic “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love),” that said artists can use termination to regain not only American copyrights, but also overseas rights to the same songs. That ruling undid decades of industry precedent.

The earlier ruling was hailed as a “game-changer” for musicians, but seen as dangerously incorrect by publishers, labels and investors that own catalogs. In June, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and BMG urged the Supreme Court to overturn it.

In an order Monday, the high court used a rare maneuver to refuse that request. Four of the nine justices did not participate, and the remaining justices said the case could not be resolved in the coming term, meaning the ruling should be upheld. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson did not participate in the case, though it was unclear why.

Such an order leaves in place Vetter’s landmark win, but it does not make it the law of the land. Other appeals courts, including those covering New York and Los Angeles, are not bound to rule the same way. If they decide the issue differently, it would create a so-called circuit split that could make it more likely for the Supreme Court to review the issue again in the future.

Termination is a federal provision that gives creators a chance to recapture their copyrights decades after they sold them away. But it has only ever applied to U.S. rights and had no effect in foreign countries. Under that approach, publishers continue to control overseas rights even after termination, an arrangement that gives them perpetual revenue in a globalized streaming era, veto power over cross-border projects and key leverage in deal re-negotiations.

In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected that longstanding precedent. Siding with Vetter, the appeals court said Congress had written the termination statute with the goal of correcting “unequal bargaining power,” and thus clearly did not intend for authors to win back “only half of the apple” when they invoke the law.

Though the major labels were not initially involved in the case, they used an unusual business deal to seek Supreme Court review, buying out the small publisher who owned Vetter’s music solely for the purposes of filing such a case. And in their petition to the court in June, they urged the justices to overturn a “headscratching” and “startling” ruling that would be “every bit as disruptive as it sounds.”

“In a single stroke, the decision below unsettled 50 years of industry practice,” the labels wrote at the time. “[It] immediately calls into question the scope and meaning of countless negotiated agreements backed by billions of dollars.”

But Vetter’s attorneys argued back that the case was not ripe for high court review, even if the world’s biggest music companies didn’t like it. They urged the justices to simply avoid the case and allow the issue to be decided by other lower courts before a final showdown.

“Petitioners try to depict this case as some sort of copyright emergency that cannot await further [litigation],” Vetter’s attorneys wrote at the time. “But publishers are doing just fine and will continue to thrive even if some of them have slightly less bargaining power with which to deprive authors of a fair return when their works become wildly successful.”

Yoonchae, Megan, Lara and Daniela of KATSEYE turned the 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion show into their very own KAT-walk on Sunday (Oct. 18), looking fierce while performing their hits “Pinky Up” and “Animal” as models showed off the brand’s new Pink collection.

Taking the spotlight moments after Tate McRae finished her performance, the four singer-dancers — who appeared sans their bandmates Manon and Sophia, who are on hiatus — started out in the audience as they dove into the first few bars of “Pinky Up.” Backed up by a fleet of dancers, the ladies then marched onto the runway and finished out the number with their signature, high-energy choreography, fitting right in with the models in custom pink-and-black bustiers and miniskirts.

After a brief interlude, Yoonchae, Megan, Lara and Daniela returned to the catwalk to finish out strong with “Animal,” singing as the screens read “PINK Class of 2026.” Before leaving the stage, the quartet also did their best model walks down the runway, holding their own among the pros.

Later, Megan Thee Stallion would strut in her own bejeweled bra and angel wings while rapping “Body.” Earlier in the show, Megan Moroney wore furry pink wings and strummed a pink guitar while singing “6 Months Later” and “Wish I Didn’t,” after which McRae appeared in smoldering red lingerie to perform new single “Housewife.”

Both “Pinky Up” and “Animal” appear on KATSEYE’s 2026 EP, WILD, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 in August, marking the girl group’s first-ever No. 1 on the chart. The tracks respectively peaked at Nos. 28 and 24 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The VSFS is just the latest KATSEYE engagement that Yoonchae, Megan, Lara and Daniela have handled without 1/3 of their lineup. Manon has been on hiatus since February, while Sophia announced in August that she’d be stepping away for a while to focus on mental health.

But at the fashion show, the present ladies gave E! News an update following the news that Sophia will return for band activities in January. “We’re so proud of her. She’s really been so brave,” Lara told the outlet on the red carpet. “We respect her so much for taking the space and taking time for her health. She’s our sister, so we can’t wait for her to come back.”

Watch this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show — featuring KATSEYE’s performance around the one-hour, eight-minute mark — below.