In 2018, Childish Gambino’s This Is America exploded onto the airwaves, giving voice to the frustrations of a country enveloped in a losing battle with gun control and social inequality.
Gambino, who is the musical alter-ego to Atlanta star and creator Donald Glover, delivered the track with a searing intensity — performing it on Saturday Night Live and winning all four 2019 Grammy Awards for which the song had been nominated including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Music Video. It became the first rap song to win the prestigious music nod for best song and best record.
But now, the rapper is being sued for alleged copyright infringement, as artist Kidd Wes claims that This Is America was written by him, only his version was called Made In America.
Per US federal court documents, Emelike Nwosuocha alleges that the song is “glaringly similar” to a song he released two years prior on Soundcloud, citing “nearly-identical unique rhythmic, lyrical, and thematic compositional and performance content contained in the chorus – or ‘hook’ – sections that are the centrepieces of both songs.”
Nwosuocha argues that the flow of his song and Gambino’s are “unmistakably substantially similar, if not practically identical” and employed a musicologist to study the two tracks side by side. The expert concluded that “similarities in melodic contour, rhythmic triplet flow in each performance, and the lines Made in America and This is America are ‘likely not coincidences’.”
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