French Montana spends a lot of time tied up in litigation. Late last month, the “Keep It Real” rapper was hit with a civil lawsuit for $50,000 over a shooting that occurred on the set of one of his music videos. Although no major updates have taken place in that case, another one of the cases he’s battling has shifted in his favor.
Back in 2019, the rapper was sued for intellectual property infringement that claimed his 2013 song “Ain’t Worried About Nothin’” stole the instrumental from Eddie Lee Richardson (professionally known as Hotwire the Producer). However, in documents exclusively retrieved by HipHopDX, the judge presiding over the case, Nancy L. Maldonadom, has partially ruled in Montana’s favor.
Maldonado granted a summary motion to three of his five issues against producer Richardson. The judge did, however, deny the rapper’s request to rule that “any infringement was innocent or not willful.” The outlet notes that Richardson had conceded three of the five points in the lawsuit, and the judge’s summary motion leaves Montana to fight it out on the remaining two points (public performance with the instrumental and derivative works).
Tyiase Hasan, the representative for Richardson told Law360 piece, “There were no objections, and the parties were already in agreement.” adding, “the infringement here is as plain as day.”
On the other side, Dariush Adli, who represents Montana, said, “We believe the jury will likely not find the infringement to have been willful because the undisputed evidence shows that plaintiff reached out to French only once, in 2013, about potential [infringement] and that French referred him to the music producer, Rico Love.” He added, “However, plaintiff did not sue Rico Love because the 3 years statute of limitations had run on that claim.”
