You know you’ve made it when you’re hit with a lawsuit.
The Weeknd is named in a copyright lawsuit over his top charting song, “The Hills,” according to documents obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
London-based Cutting Edge Music filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Los Angeles alleging that the song features a score from a lesser-known indie film titled, “The Machine.”
The company is suing The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, along with his producers and music giants Universal, Warner Chappell, Sony/ATV and others.
Twitter may also play a big role in the case.
Co-defendant Emmanuel (Mano) Nickerson, a music producer who worked on “The Hills,” allegedly sent a direct Twitter message to Cutting Edge stating, “I sampled your music might make it 2 the weeknd next album.”
“The Hills” was released in May as the second single from his album, “Beauty Behind the Madness.”
This isn’t the first time the 25-year-old singer has been accused of stealing sounds.
In May, he was accused by Portishead of using a sample of “Machine Gun” in his track “Belong to the World.” Geoff Barrow, a member of the group, said The Weeknd claimed he didn’t use a sample while in fact, he’d written the band a letter asking to sample from the song. Barrow posted the letter on his Twitter account.
Legal drama aside, it seem The Weeknd has had a god year
He recently received seven Grammy nominations for Beauty Behind the Madness.
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