Childish Gambino sued by rapper claiming ‘This Is America’ was a rip-off of his work
Kidd Wes is suing Gambino, as well as all co-writers and Roc Nation over the alleged similarities
According to recent reports, Childish Gambino is getting sued by a rapper who claims his Grammy award-winning song, “This Is America” is a rip-off of a lesser-known song.
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Kidd Wes (Emelike Nwosuocha) found Childish Gambino’s Record of the Year-winning hit song a little too similar to his own. Per TMZ, the rapper released a song in 2017 entitled “Made in America,” which he claims sounds eerily similar to Childish Gambino’s smash hit.
Two years before Gambino’s song, Wes reportedly registered “Made in America” with the U.S. Copyright Office and had it set as the lead single to his then-upcoming album.
TMZ reports that according to the official documents, “Kidd Wes claims the chorus, or hook, of ‘This is America’ is ‘unmistakably substantially similar, if not practically identical to his ‘Made in America.'”
In addition, Kidd Wes is even claiming that the rapper’s “flow” is similar in the song, specifically in the respective hooks.
The rapper also believes that the song was intentionally stolen. Per TMZ, “Kidd Wes claims there are also scientific similarities in the 2 tracks, and alleges it’s not a coincidence — he believes he was intentionally ripped off, and he wants major damages.”
As theGrio previously reported, Childish Gambino, born Donald Glover, made history when he won Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “This Is America” at the 2019 Grammy Awards. It became the first rap song to ever win Song of the Year.
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Gambino added to another statistic by not attending the awards to pick up his trophy as it was “the first time since 2008 that a winner in one of the Big 4 categories missed the ceremony.”
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Kidd Wes is not only suing Gambino, but he is also reportedly suing all co-writers on the song, Roc Nation and even Young Thug (who has backup vocal credits on the song.) theGrio reached out to Gambino’s reps but has not heard back from them yet.
Check out the video for “This is America” below:
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