3.5 ( 341 )

We have some bad news going on in the music industry! Lil Nas X, Cardi B, and producers are being sued over the song “Rodeo” for copyright infringement. Rodeo is one of the better tracks from Lil Nas X’s latest EP, “7”. This song continued the road of country-rap fusion like “Old Town Road” ft. Billy Ray Cyrus.

Introduction

The other songs from the EP 7 were other stuff. The EP includes fusion of hip-hop with electronic music as well as with rock music. However, talking about Rodeo, it is another country-rap banger. It would seem that Rodeo is being sued over the similarity to another song titled “Broad Day” which is embedded below:

The artist PuertoReefa isn’t suing Lil Nas X, Cardi B, and producers. The producers, from Atlanta, of “Broad Day” are suing the artists of “Rodeo”, viz. Don Lee & Glen Keith DeMeritt III. According to NME, it is the instrumental of the song “Rodeo”, which is essentially the focus of this lawsuit.

They are neither talking about suing “Rodeo” over the similarity of these two songs nor about the lyrics on “Rodeo” to the lyrics on “Broad Day”. The producers of “Broad Day” aren’t suing Lil Nas X and the team for any structural relevances on these songs. It is about the similarity of the instrumentals used in the song “Rodeo”, which is really the crux of the lawsuit here.

Now, listen to Rodeo:

What do we think?

The instrumentals are VERY similar. It is basically a trap beat. The baseline of the song is quite similar as well being based on from what I can hear. Finally, the nail is the chord progression and guitar play. Although the guitar play on Lil Nas X’s Rodeo is very different, it is played in just about the same way. It’s got a similar tone to it and the chord progression is dead on.

Again, I’m not sure if you need much more than that so as to win the lawsuit. But the chord progression and the guitar are the only two components that are common in both of these songs. Of course, naturally, Lil Nas X’s video is a high budget and high gloss country-rap banger. It has a lot of different characteristics in comparison to the song “Broad Day”.

The Cardi B part, the vocal part, the intro, the outro, and the various shifts across the song structures make “Rodeo” much different than “Broad Day”. “Broad Day” is pretty much one-note. But the major focus of the lawsuit is the similarities of these instrumentals.

How does this relate to other lawsuits in the industry?

We have seen lawsuits against very successful artists in the music industry. Katy Perry was sued over a song that had way small similarities with her song than this case. We are pretty much suing over aesthetics, similar vibes, and similar chord progressions these days.

These days, the songs don’t have to be the melody mapped over each other to file for copyright infringement. We are suing over general similarities that we think shouldn’t be that big of a deal. However, in this instance, it is a pretty big deal. In a general sense, these two songs “Rodeo” and “Broad Day” are pretty similar.

Conclusion

We wonder who exactly was responsible for the incorporation of the guitar and chord progression because it is very similar. There may be many music fans out there thinking it’s not fair and are not happy. At Laviasco, we aren’t happy to see the lawsuit on an artist who we think is a game-changer either.

But the similarities between the instrumentals of “Rodeo” and “Broad Day” are there. If their lawyers can essentially establish a narrative where it would become plausible that someone who was a part of Lil Nas X’s team consciously ripped “Broad Day” off, it could be the fast settlement coming to the producers of “Broad Day”.

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