Rick Astley has filed a lawsuit against a rapper who stole his song "Never Gonna Give You Up" in order to defend himself and one of his well-known tunes.
The 56-year-old claims that Yung Gravy and his production crew merely leased the instrumental of Rick's song and did not license his voice in their lawsuit against the rapper for his "Betty (Get Money)" single.
The rapper, whose true name is Matthew Raymond Hauri, and his group, which also features impersonator Nick "Popnick" Seeley and Dillon Francis, were not given permission to "recreate" the vocals, according to the veteran singer's attorney, who testified in court.
They also asserted that Rick lost out on a significant chance for a future collaboration because Yung Gravy included "Never Gonna Give You Up" in his recently released track.
TMZreported that Rick's legal team claimed they "conspired to include a deliberate and nearly indistinguishable imitation of Mr. Astley's voice throughout the song."
In court, Rick mentioned a Billboard interview from the previous year in which Yung Gravy described how the vocals for the song "Get Money" were "essentially redone."
Yung Gravy admitted he never believed the sample to be "clearable," but he stated how he always believed it would be "sick to do anything with."
The upcoming rapper described how a person who shared ownership of the sample approached him and said, "We f--- with you, you should try it out."
The rapper of "Mr. Clean" said that they completely rewrote the song with a different vocalist and instrument, but it was all near because it was now more widely available legally.
Two of the three writers who had to approve it initially did, but one of them afterwards requested that Yung Gravy make the song a little bit cleaner. There is an early version because the rapper was compelled to go back and tweak the lyrics.
"Overall, it's kinda the same thing, but there's a dirty version that sounds like a Gravy song with more cuss words."
In December 1987, "Never Gonna Give You Up" was initially made available. In March 1988, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Meanwhile, "Betty (Get Money)," a song by Yung Gravy, was certified gold in the US, Canada, and Australia.
Twitter users responded to the lawsuit filing immediately after it was announced.
Many people praised Rick Astley for doing so and even referred to Yung Gravy's actions as "careless" because they were all carried out without the original hitmaker's consent.
Another individual, however, made fun of Rick and advised him to just give up and accept disappointment.
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