Rick Astley is suing Yung Gravy for the rapper’s popular 2022 song, which extensively sampled the singer’s classic song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Astley claims that the new track, which sounded a lot like an outright sample, violated the law by using Astley’s voice as a doppelganger.
Astley claims that Gravy’s “Betty (Get Money),” which peaked at No. 30 on the Hot 100 last year, violated the singer’s so-called right of publicity because it closely resembled the distinctive voice Astley used in the number-one 1987 hit in a lawsuit filed on Thursday (Jan. 26) in a Los Angeles court.
Yung Gravy Supposedly Copied Rick Astley’s Song
Yung Gravy was “very possessive over his name, image, and likeness,” according to Astley’s attorneys, who claimed that the unpermitted use of the soundalike voice had done him “immense damage.”
A request for comment was not immediately answered by Gravy’s (actual name Matthew Hauri) or Republic Records’ (also mentioned in the lawsuit as the label that released “Betty”) representatives.
The new complaint filed on Thursday raises serious concerns about the procedures followed in the music industry to legally sample older songs, a strategy that has become increasingly common in a period of strong nostalgia. Yung Gravy and his colleagues reportedly obtained permission to use “Give You Up’s” underlying musical composition when they made “Betty,” which Astley does not own. That allowed them permission to “interpolate,” or replicate the melody and words from the original song in their new recording.
However, according to the lawsuit, Gravy and his crew were unable to get permission to utilize the actual sound recording of the well-known music, a practice known as “sampling.” That would imply that they lacked the authorization to reproduce the sounds exactly, including Astley’s voice.
