Drake has scored himself an intriguing win in a copyright court case.
Drizzy was accused of unlawfully sampling the 1982 spoken word “Jimmy Smith Rap” in his song “Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2”. The track was featured on Drake’s 2013 project Nothing Was the Same.
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The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of “fair use” of the copyrighted work on Monday, per The Hollywood Reporter. The judge examined 35-seconds of the sampling to help make their judgement.
“The message of the ‘Jimmy Smith Rap’ is one about the supremacy of jazz to the derogation of other types of music, which — unlike jazz — will not last,” the summary judgement order read. “On the other hand, ‘Pound Cake’ sends a counter-message — that it is not jazz music that reigns supreme, but rather all ‘real music,’ regardless of genre.”
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“‘Pound Cake’ criticizes the jazz-elitism that the ‘Jimmy Smith Rap’ espouses,” it continued. “By doing so, it uses the copyrighted work for ‘a purpose, or imbues it with a character, different from that for which it was created.’”
“Pound Cake” features a guest performance by Jay-Z.
