“Never Gonna Give You Up” singer Rick Astley is suing rapper Yung Gravy for his single “Betty.” Astley alleges that the vocals in “Betty” sound a bit too much like his iconic croon. Gravy and his lawyers claim they received permission from Astley’s team to interpolate “Never Gonna Give You Up,” meaning they could legally recreate elements from the song such as melodies and lyrics. However, Astley’s lawyers claim that the end result of the interpolation in “Betty” is too similar to the original song’s chorus, violating the singer’s so-called right of publicity.

“In an effort to capitalize off of the immense popularity and goodwill of Mr. Astley, defendants … conspired to include a deliberate and nearly indistinguishable imitation of Mr. Astley’s voice throughout the song,” Astley’s lawyers wrote in a suit filed Thursday, January 26. “The public could not tell the difference. The imitation of Mr. Astley’s voice was so successful the public believed it was actually Mr. Astley singing.”

For “Betty,” Gravy recruited singer Popnick to mimic Astley’s “signature voice,” which comes out sounding nearly identical. If a song uses the actual recording of another song, that is a sample, which requires an entirely different license to be legal, one that Gravy and his team did not secure, since they used someone else’s vocals.

“A license to use the original underlying musical composition does not authorize the stealing of the artist’s voice in the original recording,” Astley’s lawyers claimed. “So, instead, they resorted to theft of Mr. Astley’s voice without a license and without agreement.”

Astley’s lawyers have also accused Gravy of making false statements saying Astley had endorsed “Betty.” Gravy said Astley’s team had told him the singer “digs the song.” “He approved it and he’s a fan,” Gravy said. (Consequence)