Artist News Business News Labels & Publishers Legal Top Stories

Another Chris Brown collaborator removed from No Guidance song-theft lawsuit

By | Published on Monday 8 August 2022

Chris Brown

One of the co-writers on the Chris Brown track ‘No Guidance’ has got himself dismissed from the song theft lawsuit filed in relation to the hit. Noah Shebib – aka 40 – was removed as a defendant on the litigation last week.

Singer Braindon Cooper and producer Timothy Valentine sued Brown last year claiming that ‘No Guidance’ rips off their 2016 track ‘I Love Your Dress’. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs said that “in addition to containing similar beat patterns, the melody and lyrics used in the chorus/hook of ‘No Guidance’ – ‘you got it, girl; you got it’ – are so strikingly similar to those used in the chorus of ‘I Love Your Dress’ that they cannot be purely coincidental”.

The lawsuit also targeted Drake, who guests on the track, as well as other collaborators and music companies involved in Brown’s song. The various defendants hit back in January arguing that Cooper and Valentine’s litigation was entirely premised upon “the alleged similarity between the wholly generic lyrical phrase ‘you got it’ and the alleged similar (and unoriginal) theme of a hard-working, attractive woman”.

Although lawyers for Cooper and Valentine then disputed those arguments in February, in April they returned to court to confirm that they were taking Drake’s name off their lawsuit. They said in a legal filing: “All claims asserted against Aubrey Drake Graham aka Drake … shall be, and hereby are, dismissed with prejudice and without costs or attorneys’ fees as against any party”.

And last week the same lawyers told the court they were now removing Shebib as a defendant, again with prejudice, which means they can’t re-file any future litigation targeting the producer/songwriter in relation to this song.

It’s not entirely clear why Drake and Shebib have been removed as defendants. But, either way, Brown and others involved in ‘No Guidance’ – including his label Sony Music – are still being sued and continue to fight back against Cooper and Valentine’s claims.



READ MORE ABOUT: | | |