Rapper Kidd Wes has sued artist Childish Gambino for alleged copyright infringement as he claims the two Grammy-winning hit “This Is America” is actually his.
According to US federal court documents, Emelike Nwosuocha, Kidd Wes’ real name, assures that the famous song edited in 2018 by Donald Glover – whose alter ego is Childish Gambino – is “clearly similar” to a song that he released two years before on the Soundcloud platform called, “Made in America”.
The lawsuit filed in New York describes the “nearly identical rhythmic, lyrical, compositional theme and performance content in the chorus sections that are centerpieces of both songs.”
In 2019 “This Is America” became the first rap song to win the prestigious Grammy for song of the year and best recording.
The track is packed with social commentary and combines a fast-paced rhythm with church hymns and Afrobeats, along with a heavier bass line. Nwosuocha assures that his song and Gambino’s are “unmistakably, substantially, similar, if not practically identical.”
The plaintiff also cited a hired musicologist to compare the two, who considered that the “similarities in melodic contour, in the triplet flow of each performance and the lines in ‘Made in America’ and ‘This is America'” “probably they are not a coincidence. “
Nwosuocha intends that a process for damages is opened, that they contemplate their loss of benefits and opportunities.
The defendants in the lawsuit include Gambino’s record company, RCA, as well as Roc Nation and rapper Young Thug, who appears as a songwriter and performs backing vocals.
Gambino has not responded to the allegations publicly.
In 2018, a blogger already wrote about the resemblance between “This Is America” and a song by rapper Jase Harley called “American Pharaoh.” Harley ultimately did not take legal action, and Gambino’s manager rejected the plagiarism allegations on the grounds that computer files existed from 2015 that proved Gambino’s song was original.
