New York, NY – Drake has reaffirmed victory in a lawsuit over sampling 1982’s “Jimmy Smith Rap” in his song “Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2.” After originally winning the case in 2017, the OVO leader won yet again in the Second Circuit Court Appeals on Monday (February 3).
The estate Smith’s appeal was unsuccessful as a panel judges agreed with the original ruling fair use, declaring Drake’s usage “Jimmy Smith Rap” to be transformative. The judgment also determined “Pound Cake,” which appeared on 2013’s Nothing Was The Same, didn’t “usurp demand” for Smith’s track or “otherwise cause a negative market effect.”
In a summary the decision, the judges explained why Drake’s song was deemed to be transformative.
“The message the ‘Jimmy Smith Rap’ is one about the supremacy jazz to the
derogation other types music, which–unlike jazz–will not last,” the summary reads. “On the other hand, ‘Pound Cake’ sends a counter message–that it is not jazz music that reigns supreme, but rather all ‘real music,’ regardless genre.”
The explanation continued, “Through both the alteration the ‘Jimmy Smith Rap’ and the rest the rap’s lyrics, ‘Pound Cake’ emphasizes that it is not the genre but the authenticity the music that matters. In this manner, ‘Pound Cake’ criticizes the jazz-elitism that the ‘Jimmy Smith Rap’ espouses. By doing so, it uses the copyrighted work for “a purpose, or imbues it with a character, different from that for which it was created.’”
Read the court’s full ruling here, courtesy The Hollywood Reporter.