Rick Astley Sues Yung Gravy with Multimillion Dollar Lawsuit Over Imitation

Published on January 28th, 2023 | Updated on January 28th, 2023 | By FanFest

Rick Astley is taking a firm stance against Yung Gravy, filing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over the unauthorized use of his vocals from “Never Gonna Give You Up” in 1987. The legendary singer has no tolerance for the rapper’s imitations and seeks to put an end to them once and for all.

Yung Gravy, Dillion Francis and Nick “Popnick” Seeley are facing legal action from Rick Astley’s team for allegedly using the singer’s vocals without authorization in their 2022 single “Betty (Get Money).” According to court documents obtained by TMZ in Los Angeles, the trio had only licensed and used the instrumentals of Astley’s song. They did not have any permission to reproduce or use his vocals.

Rick Astley is suing Yung Gravy for copying his voice https://t.co/XH9FxlIoTM

— Pitchfork (@pitchfork) January 27, 2023

According to TMZ, the filing claims that Yung Gravy, Francis and Popnick “colluded to incorporate a nearly indistinguishable replica of Rick Astley’s voice into the song.” Furthermore, Astley is asserting that by utilizing his ’87 hit as a framework for their 2022 smash-hit, Yung Gravy cost himself any potential lucrative collaboration opportunities in the future.

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The lawsuit includes a part of Yung Gravy’s Billboard interview, in which he revealed how his team “basically remade” Rick Astley’s song. “I always thought that sample would be sick to do something with. I just never figured it was clearable,” Yung Gravy said to Billboard. “Somebody who had part-ownership of the rights to the sample hit me up like, ‘We f- with you, you should try it out.’ My boy Nick, who does a lot of sample replays and recreating original samples, we basically remade the whole song. Had a different singer and instruments, but it was all really close because it makes it easier legally.”

Rick Astley’s beloved single hit the top of Billboard Hot 100 back in March 1988, and just recently, Gravy has earned a gold record for his rendition of the song in all three countries: The USA, Canada and Australia.

This legal case adds an entertaining twist to Astley’s narrative so far. The internet phenomenon of Rick Rolling propelled him back into the spotlight in this century, and now a lawsuit against a Soundcloud rapper based on that same tune appears to be some type of cosmic fate or humorous irony.