A live performance from Playboi Carti, who’s facing a copyright lawsuit centering on ‘Kelly K.’ Photo Credit: The Come Up Show
Playboi Carti (real name Jordan Carter) is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit from an individual who says he’s owed payment for contributing to the vocals on “Kelly K.”
One Eric Mercer Jr., known professionally as Blakk Soul and described in the action as “a multi-hyphenate singer/songwriter/producer/engineer,” just recently submitted that complaint to a California federal court.
Also naming Cash Carti Music, Universal Music, and its Interscope Records as defendants, the straightforward suit solely concerns the above-mentioned “Kelly K.” The second-to-last track on Carter’s 2017 debut mixtape, that effort currently boasts 55 million Spotify streams.
And according to the plaintiff here, who has credits on releases from Anderson .Paak and others, he recorded some of the vocals on “Kelly K.” While many other complaints go to great lengths to illustrate connections between the plaintiffs and the accused (besides creative overlap between works), Mercer’s suit is upfront about how the purported vocal contributions came to be.
Per the action, Mercer recorded said contributions with Jake One (real name Jacob Dutton), and the vocals made their way into the completed song; Dutton is officially credited on “Kelly K.”
But as laid out by Mercer, before the popular track’s release, he didn’t “transfer any of his rights, including, but not limited to his copyrights to” the non-party Dutton or the defendants.
Fast forward to July 2019, after “Kelly K” had gained commercial traction. At that point, Playboi Carti and his noted Cash Carti Music approached Mercer with a split sheet granting him a 5% “ownership interest” in “Kelly K” for his contributions, the suit explains.
From there, Mercer allegedly “executed” the appropriate agreement on January 24th, 2020. Notwithstanding the claimed “Kelly K” interest, though, the plaintiff says he “has yet to receive a single dollar, or even an accounting of what is owed to him.”
Unsurprisingly, then, the filing party allegedly informed the defendants via email and certified mail “that he was rescinding the” deal in question. According to Mercer, however, “none” of the notice’s recipients responded.
All told, Mercer is suing not only for straight copyright infringement, but for alleged publicity-right violations under California law, breach of contract (specifically against Playboi Carti and his company), and unjust enrichment.
At the time of writing, Playboi Carti didn’t appear to have addressed the suit on social media. As for the 29-year-old’s next career steps, a long-expected third studio album, entitled I Am Music, is presumably set to arrive sooner rather than later. The project’s lead single, “All Red,” dropped this past September.