French Montana has won a sampling lawsuit, even if the judge believes that the beat he’s alleged to have stolen is “indistinguishable” from his.
Producer Eddie Lee Richardson had claimed that Montana ripped off the beat for “Hood Pushin’ Weight” for the song “Ain’t Worried About Nothing.’”
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on Oct. 16 that the producer failed to prove his case.
“We agree with Richardson that HPW’s beat, to the naked ear, seems indistinguishable from the beat in AWAN,” wrote Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi for a three-judge panel. “Yet, opinions and allegations unsupported by facts are not enough.”
Judge Jackson-Akiwumi ruled that Richardson “failed to supply facts” to support his argument.
“Richardson could have presented either direct or indirect evidence to succeed in his claim that Kharbouch duplicated HPW in producing AWAN,” wrote Judge Jackson-Akiwumi. “Richardson has presented neither.”
The ruling of the court upheld an earlier decision from a lower court judge who declared that both songs had clear similarities and sympathized with Richardson. “If it is any consolation, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” wrote Judge Nancy L. Maldonado in 2024.
Back in 2019, Richardson sued Montana and claimed that the rapper stole elements of his track when he posted it on the platform SoundClick in 2012.
When Judge Maldonado dismissed the producer’s case last year, she did so because he failed to show the direct sampling of his sound recording. This was, as Billboard noted, because Richardson had copyrighted only the sound recording, not the underlying composition. That turned out to be an oversight fatal to his case.
In Maldonado's ruling, she made it clear that she considered it a “technical win” for Montana — not one that he should “claim as a substantive victory.”
Montana’s “Ain’t Worried About Nothin’ reached No. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100.