Nicki Minaj wants to request a jury trial to examine the song lawsuit, imposed by Tracy Chapman in October 2018. The iconic rapper says she wants to clear her name and is asking for a jury trial to conclude the lawsuit and determine the result of the copyright infringement, filed against her by legendary singer Chapman in a California federal court.
Chapman claims her 1998 song, ‘Baby Can I Hold You,’ interpolates with Minaj’s track ‘Sorry,’ and was used without permission. To which the rapper responded that Chapman is not entitled to any damages because the interpolation or sampling of the song is protected by the doctrine of fair use.
Nicki’s legal team also added that Chapman never “properly registered her claim to the copyright in the composition,” which means the singer is not the official owner of the copyright of ‘Baby Can I Hold You.’
The 37-year-old rapper insists she did nothing wrong and never released the track, however it was New York DJ Funkmaster Flex who obtained a copy of the song from one of his bloggers and shared it. Minaj also said she had initially planned to leak the track herself but had a change of heart at the last minute, adding that she warned Flex to “only play official album material,” to which he responded it wasn’t the singer or her recording engineer who shared the track with him.
Prior to the lawsuit, Chapman was requested “multiple times” to clear a sample before the release of Nicki’s album ‘Queen,’ to which the 56-year-old singer declined every single time despite the several requests.
