The Trinidadian-born pop and rap icon Nicki Minaj has landed in legal trouble just days after she made headlines for her much-awaited music video ‘Barbie World.’ The iconic singer is not new to controversies and now has been sued by a musician named Julius Johnson for a track she released 9 years ago. He alleges that the song titled “I Lied,” a part of her 2014 album The Pinkprint is a ‘carbon copy’ of a beat he made for one of his songs back in 2011.
The musician claims that “I Lied’s” instrumentation closely mimics the beat of his 2011 song, “onmysleeve,” which he posted on YouTube three years before “I Lied’s” release. He added that the beat must have been obtained by Nicki Minaj and her music producer Mike Will Made It at the Art Institute of Atlanta in 2013 when he was there with the beat on a computer hard drive.
He further added that when he was in the recording studio, the drive was stolen from him without his permission. His lawsuit mentions that he didn’t hear “I Lied” until 2022, even though it was released in 2014, and that he instantly recognized the beat.
The lawsuit reads, “onmysleeve” and “I Lied” ‘use at least the same style instrument bed, rhythm, beats per minute, and song key,” and “contain substantially identical underlying instrumentation and beat.” Although the tempo and orchestration are essentially the same as in his song “onmysleeve,” he agrees that the lyrics are noticeably different.
Johnson is suing Minaj and Mike Will for the money they made from the song and he also wants a judge to order Minaj to cease using the tune or give him due credit for his original beats. However, a source close to Nicki Minaj spoke to TMZ on the matter and claimed that Minaj was not involved in creating the beat at all:
“Clearly Nicki is a lyricist, so the claim in terms of production will obviously have to be addressed by the applicable parties.”
This leaves the Grammy-winning producer Mike Will Made It at the center of the lawsuit since he was behind the beats in Minaj’s “I Lied.” Alongside Universal Music Group and other record labels, producers Ester Renay Dean and Skooly are mentioned as defendants. The lawsuit has come in not even a month after Minaj was moved to court by the West Hollywood jeweler Roseark for a dispute over allegedly damaged jewelry.
“I Lied” is a part of Minaj’s third album The Pinkprint, which debuted in 2014 and marked a return to her hip-hop beginnings and featured more introspective material. The album was certified double platinum in Feb. 2016. Earlier this month, Minaj announced a new album with a release date of Oct. 20, 2023.
