Travis Scott was sued Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court by a trio of European songwriters for alleged copyright infringement over his song Highest In The Room.
The 28-year-old Houston rapper and other credited authors were accused by Benjamin Lasnier, Olivier Bassil and Lukas Benjamin in a 37-page complaint of using the guitar melody from their song Cartier without authorization, according to an article by Billboard.
Highest In The Room debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in October knocking off Truth Hurts by Lizzo, 32, and spent 22 weeks among the Hot 100.
Hit song: Travis Scott, shown last August in Santa Monica, California, was sued Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court by a trio of European songwriters for alleged copyright infringement over his hit song Highest In The Room
The song was first partially heard in April 2019 in a commercial by Scott’s ex-girlfriend Kylie Jenner, 22, for her Kybrows beauty product.
The lawsuit by the trio named the defendants as Scott, real names Jacques Webster, along with song writers and producers Oz [Ozan Yildirim], Nik D [Nik Dejan Frascona], Mike Dean, Cash Passion [Jamie Lepr] and Sean Solymar. The suit also named Scott’s Cactus Jack Records, Grand Hustle LLC, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Papa George Music and These Are Songs of Pulse, a California company, as defendants.
The songwriters claimed they created the Cartier song with a distinctive guitar melody in 2019 and Lasnier a few days later posted a link in an online discussion group for music producers, according to the lawsuit.
Lasnier later sent their music to at least 100 producers and artists, including Lepr, seeking interest in licensing their work for future collaborations, the lawsuit said.
Federal lawsuit: The 28-year-old Houston rapper, shown in October in New York City, and other credited authors were accused by Benjamin Lasnier, Olivier Bassil and Lukas Benjamin in a 37-page complaint of using the guitar melody from their song Cartier without authorization
The lawsuit further alleged that Lasnier after also posting the song on Instagram began corresponding with Lepr and sent him beats for licensing consideration.
Lasnier, Bassil and Leth when Highest In The Room was released found the guitar melody was similar to their song Cartier, according to their lawsuit.
‘There is no doubt that Defendants’ ”Highest in the Room” was modeled after and copied original, prominent and qualitatively and quantitatively important parts of Plaintiff’s ”Cartier”,’ the complaint stated.
European plaintiffs: Lasnier, shown in March 2016 in Inglewood, California, is among the trio of European music producers who sued Scott and others over the song
Richard Busch, the attorney for the three songwriters, told Billboard, ‘Everything we basically have to say is set forth in the Complaint. I will just add that our clients are very successful songwriters/producers who, as set forth in the Complaint, and is common practice, corresponded with the defendant writers with an eye toward licensing their work through a collaboration.’
He added: ‘They never expected that this would end up in a lawsuit but felt they had no choice but to take this action under these circumstances.’
The trio of songwriters asked a federal judge to declare that Scott and the others willfully infringed on their work.
First heard: The song was first partially heard in April 2019 in a commercial by Scott’s ex-girlfriend Kylie Jenner, 22, for her Kybrows beauty product about a month before they were pictured together at the Met Gala in New York City
They additionally were seeking damages and their share of the royalties for Highest In The Room, which they predicted already has earned at least $20 million.
A source close to Scott told TMZ that the lawsuit was a frivolous dispute between producers and had nothing to do directly with the rapper.
Scott and Jenner were together from 2017 to 2019 and have two-year-old daughter Stormi together.
One child: Scott and Jenner were together from 2017 to 2019 and have two-year-old daughter Stormi together, shown in an undated photo on Instagram