Back in 2019, a little over a year after Drake released his fifth album Scorpion, Drake was hit with a lawsuit over his No. 1 songs “In My Feelings” and “Nice For What.” Both songs were played a big role in the success of Scorpion, but according to Sam Skully (whose real name is Samuel Nicholas III), the track wrongfully sampled aspects of his 2000 song “Roll Call (Instrumental)” in the respective tracks. Skully’s first lawsuit was dismissed, as was his second case, because he failed to actually litigate them. However, according to Billboard, Skully has filed his third lawsuit against Drake alleging copyright infringement over “In My Feelings” and “Nice For What.”
In the lawsuit, Skully claims that aspects of “Roll Call (Instrumental)” were sampled and added to the records from Scorpion by the songs’ producer BlaqNmilD, whose real name Adam J. Pigott. Skully claims that Pigott used the same sample in other records that he worked on for other artists. However, Pigott’s representatives say that both he and Skully used the same sample from a 1986 record by legendary Queens hip hop duo The Showboys.
“It is this song, ‘Drag Rap (Triggerman),’ that Adam had indeed sampled for the compositions in question,” BlaqNmilD’s manager Craig E. Baylis says. “The Showboys will attest that Adam ensured that they were contacted for all proper clearances. Our question is, has the plaintiff done the same?”
Asylum Records, Cash Money Records, Republic Records, and New Orleans legend Big Freedia were also named in the lawsuit. Skully’s lawyer, Mark Edward Andrews, and representatives Drake and Warner Music Group did not return requests for comment from Billboard.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.