The singer accuses the rapper of having used the voice of his tube without legal authorization Never Gonna Give You Up in the track Betty (Get Money).
Rick Astley is suing rapper Yung Gravy. The British artist, who rose to fame in 1987 with his song Never Gonna Give You Upaccuses the American of having imitated his voice without his permission, in the song Betty (Get Money).
According to the complaint, cited by Deadline, only the instrumental music from the original track was credited to Yung Gravy’s title. Rick Astley affirms that the rapper uses, without any right, “an intentional and almost indiscernible imitation of his voice”.
“The public cannot tell the difference. The imitation of Mr. Astley’s voice is so successful that the public believes it was actually Mr. Astley singing,” reads the complaint, filed in court. from Los Angeles on Thursday.
Rick Astley is also suing his voice impersonator, Nick Seeley (aka Popnick).
Over a billion views on YouTube
According to these legal documents, this imitation would have destroyed a collaboration project of Rick Astley with another artist, who also intended to sample the vocal tracks of the song Never Gonna Give You Up.
Big hit by Rick Astley, written by the trio Matt Aitken, Mike Stock and Pete Waterman, Never Gonna Give You Up celebrated its 35th anniversary last July. A real hit that has become a phenomenon on the Internet, it is now one of the few songs to have exceeded one billion views on YouTube, with Gangnam Style of Psy and Smells Like Teen Spirit of Nirvana.
Released in June 2022 Betty is from Yung Gravy’s third solo album, Marvelous. Quickly went viral thanks to TikTok, this song has since been certified gold in the United States.
