Nicki Minaj is already having a pretty tough year.
Shortly after a hair stylist sued the rapper for a considerable chunk of money for allegedly stealing his wig designs, Minaj is facing yet another lawsuit. According to AllHipHop News , Nicki stands accused of stealing parts of another song to craft her hit tune “Starships.”
Clive Tanaka, a EDM artist from Chicago, believes Nicki Minaj lifted some material from his track “Neu Chicago” to craft the song in question. As a result, Tanaka wants Minaj and the folks at Young Money to pay for their thievery.
Have a listen to Nicki Minaj’s “Starships.”
Does it sound anything like Tanaka’s “Neu Chicago”?
Of course, this is simply one side of the story. The folks at Radar Online claim to have gotten their hands on a declaration filed by Nicki Minaj. In addition to citing problems with Tanaka’s timeline, the rapper wants the case thrown out .
Minaj told the court that she’s never met Chicago EDM artist and hasn’t heard “Neu Chicago.” She also points out that Tanaka didn’t register his song until 2013, one year after “Starships” was originally released. Should the case move forward, Nicki wants everything moved from Chicago to California.
Producer Nadir Khayat (aka RedOne) and writers Carl Falk, Wayne Hector, and Rami Yacoub were also named in the lawsuit . Neither Nicki Minaj nor her managers have responded to Tanaka’s lawsuit as of this writing.
As stated, this isn’t the only legal problem Minaj has faced in recent days. The Inquisitr previously reported that the rapper was hit with a $30 million lawsuit for allegedly ripping off wig designs created by Georgia stylist Terrence Davidson.
According to Davidson, Minaj cut her out of several wig-related deals when she decided to peddle these creations to he masses. Since he crafted the items in question, Terrence believes the rapper owes them a significant chunk of cash.
Davidson said he felt betrayed by Nicki, a person he previously held in very high regard. With the assistance of attorney Christopher Chestnut, the stylist filed legal papers in Atlanta district court in February.
“Nicki Minaj is reaping great success and financial bounty reward for Terrence’s creative expertise, and he is entitled to participate in that. Someone’s got to stand up for the artist. We applaud the fact that she’s making millions, but she’s also got to pay bounty to those whose creative designs she’s making millions off of,” Chestnut told CNN .
Are you a fan of Nicki Minaj? Do you believe the rapper and her producers stole material from Clive Tanaka for “Starships”?