Yeasayer sues Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd over 'Black Panther' track 'Pray For Me'
Now-defunct indie group Yeasayer has officially filed a lawsuit against Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd over the soundtrack 'Pray For Me' for the Marvel film 'Black Panther', according to reports announced on February 24. Yeasayer claims in the lawsuit that 'Pray For Me' infringes on their song 'Sunrise' from their debut studio album 'All Hour Cymbals' which released in 2007.
In the lawsuit, the band refers to a "distinctive choral performance" from 'Sunrise' with "male voices singing in their highest registers, with animated, pulsing vibrato". The band is now seeking profits from 'Pray For Me' and damages.
The American experimental rock band Yeasayer formed in 2006 and described their music in their earlier days as "Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel", according to Penn Live. Their live performances at times would include trippy, psychedelic visuals projected in the background. After a total of five studio albums, their last being 'Erotic Reruns' which released in June 2019, the band called it quits in December last year.
According to Pitchfork, the lawsuit goes on to say that The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar "extracted" the choral performance from a recording of 'Sunrise', slightly modified it via postprocessing to alter its pitch, among other qualities, and then inserted the modified audio material into 'Pray for Me'. The lawsuit added, "The material copied from 'Sunrise' is a material and substantial portion of 'Pray for Me'."
It further states that this alleged sample appears at least eight times in 'Pray for Me', and the suit describes it as “the primary feature of two complete verses, including the final verse".
It claims that despite the processing, the snippet is still "recognizable" as being taken from 'Sunrise' and that the creative team behind 'Pray for Me' "modified the portion they copied from 'Sunrise' with the intent to conceal the infringement".
Yeasayer is also seeking an injunction to stop sales and licensing of the song.
Listen to the two songs below and let us know what you think.
The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar — 'Pray For Me'
Yeasayer — 'Sunrise'