Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion have won a lawsuit that tried to accuse them of stealing lyrics from another female rapper.
On Tuesday, August 29, a Manhattan federal judge ruled that lyrics Cardi and Megan said in their songs “WAP and Thot Sh*t” were too unoriginal to be covered by copyright law, Billboard reports. The lyrics in question, “p—- so wet” and “n—-s wild’n,” were said to have been the byproduct of a “copy and paste” from a track that came out in early 2020 called “Grab Em by the P—-.”
Denise Jones, a rapper who performs under the name Necey X, filed the lawsuit against Cardi (Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar), Megan (Megan Pete) and Atlantic Records claiming they copied lyrics from her song that she released months ahead of “WAP” and “Thot Sh*t.”
However, according to U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jones failed to secure valid copyrights for the lyrics in question, and Cardi and Megan’s lyrics were not “substantially similar” to those in Jones’s song.
“Defendants’ lyric, ‘why you in the club with n—-s wild’n,’ poses a question to the rapper (or to the audience), while plaintiff’s lyric refers to the rapper’s effect on a single individual,” the judge wrote. “Thus, the phrase is used in different ways and has different meanings such that an ordinary listener would not identify defendants’ lyric as being appropriated from plaintiff’s song.”
“The concept of using ‘p—- so wet’ as a rhetorical device in a song is neither original nor unique to plaintiff,” the judge added.
“Likewise, defendants have provided examples of at least three songs pre-dating [‘Grab Em’] which use some variation of the phrase ‘n—–s wild’n.’”
The judge also shut down Jones’ claims of being stalked and harassed by Cardi and Megan, something Judge Carter deemed as “generalized allegations,” that never “identifies any negligent conduct on the part of defendants or any special duty to avoid causing emotional distress,” the judge wrote.
