Drake Hit with Copyright Lawsuit Over ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ Song

On top of his recent single release “Search & Rescue,” his impending summer tour with 21 Savage, battling AI’s trying to replace him, and much more, Drake now has a lawsuit in front of him.

According to Rolling Stone, Ghana-based singer Obrafour brought forth a suit against Drake on Wednesday (April 19), which claimed that Drake did not clear a sample for his song “Calling My Name.” The sixth song on Drake’s 2022 album Honestly, Nevermind, “Calling My Name” uses “elements” of Obrafour’s 2003 song “Oye Ohene (Remix),” per the suit.

Additionally, Obrafour claims that Drake’s team reached out to him multiple times asking for clearance for the sample, but that Drake released the album and song before he had a chance to respond. This would make sense, considering the release of Honestly, Nevermind, was incredibly spontaneous, catching many hip-hop and pop fans off-guard. The suit emphasizes this, and says Drake barely edited the Obrafour sample on “Calling My Name.”

“Nonetheless, the Infringing Work is one of the songs appearing on the Honestly, Nevermind album, as released to the world by ‘surprise’ on June 17, 2022,” the lawsuit reads. “The copying of the Sampled Phrase in the Infringing Work is so direct in nature that the audio of the Sampled Phrase heard in the Infringing Work contains little or no audible manipulation, processing, or other alteration to its original character as heard in the Copyrighted Work.”

“Calling My Name” was a fan favorite on Honestly, Nevermind, peaking at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Obrafour is hoping for $10 million from a settlement, considering the major success and profits from the song.

“To date, over the mere 304 days that have elapsed since the Infringing Work was released, the Infringing Work has already been streamed over 4.1 million times on YouTube, streamed over 47,442,160 times on Spotify, and streamed tens of millions of times on Apple Music,” the lawsuit continues.

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