A copyright lawsuit filed against Beyonce and Sony Music earlier this year has been voluntarily dropped (via billboard).
About three months ago, a small New Orleans hip-hop group called Da Showstoppaz filed a copyright lawsuit against Beyonce’s song “Break My Soul” from her 2022 Renaissance album. The central allegation of the copyright claim revolved around a sample that Beyonce legally obtained from Big Freedia’s (another New Orleans artist) song “Explode.” The sample Beyonce chose from the Big Freedia song uses phrases such as “release yo wiggle” phrases which Da Showstoppaz allege to have coined in their 2002 song “Release a Wiggle.” Da Showstoppaz allege that because Beyonce chose to sample the portion of “Explode” that uses the key phrases she is allegedly infringing on their copyright.
This case would have had a very long fight in court as copyright law doesn’t typically offer protection for short phrases. However, the fight seems to have ended early as three months after filing the copyright charges the group chose to drop the charges and end the case. There has been no talk of settlement for the charges and it seems the case was dropped voluntarily.
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