Victory Boyd, a Grammy Award-winning Gospel artist, has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against mainstream rapper Travis Scott. Boyd claims that Scott copied some original lyrics and melodies from her 2019 song “Like the Way It Sounds” for use in his 2023 song “Telekinesis.”
Other defendants include Scott’s “Telekinesis” collaborators, SZA and Future, as well as a watch company that used the song in an ad campaign against Boyd’s wishes.
In the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court on Jan. 8, Boyd asks that Scott, SZA, and Future “recall and destroy” any music that infringes on her work. She is also seeking damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
“It’s not about the money,” Boyd wrote on social media. “It’s about reclaiming GODs [sic] property.”
Victory Boyd Files Lawsuit Against Travis Scott
Boyd, one of nine siblings, has been performing since age 4. The 30-year-old singer, whose voice has been compared to Nina Simone’s, moved to Wyoming “on a whim” in 2019 to write songs for Kanye West, known as Ye.
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According to a lengthy Instagram video, Boyd got tired of seeing her hard work get “scrapped and truncated.” So she “decided that I am no longer writing songs for Ye, but rather I am writing songs for Jesus.” After switching her focus, Boyd said, she knew her work would never be in vain, even if no one but God heard the results.
On Instagram, Boyd shares a clip of her singing a tune she wrote about a heavenly dance party. Before she released it through her label, Roc Nation, Boyd said she heard “stolen” portions of it in “Telekinesis.” She claims Scott had access to her work through his friendship with West during that singer’s “Jesus Is King” era.
Next, Boyd played snippets of Scott’s “Telekinesis,” which contains some explicit lyrics. “I never would have consented to being associated and to help make a hit song that spread this message,” said the Gospel singer.
“Not once did anyone ask me or consider to inquire about my participation in this song,” Boyd added. “The answer would have been no. I wrote this song for God, and to the extent that Ye was working for God, I was working for Ye.”
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