Source: Toni Anne Barson / Getty
Miley Cyrus got caught culture vulturing red-handed, and now has to pay up. The singer has reached a settlement in the $300M lawsuit against her for biting a Reggae tune without permission.
Cyrus was sued for copyright infringement for her for 2013 hit “We Can’t Stop” from her album Bangerz. In 2018, the lawsuit was filed by Jamaican songwriter Michael May, who said her song liberally interpolated his 1998 hit “We Run Things.”
May performs as Flourgon and claimed Cyrus took his phrase “We run things. Things no run we,” and sang “We run things. Things don’t run we” on her Mike Will Made It, P-Nasty, and Rock City-produced song.
Per Reuters, the defendants, Cyrus and Sony, filed a joint stipulation that ended lawsuit with prejudice on Friday (Jan. 3) in Manhattan federal court. May won’t be able to file a lawsuit on the same grounds again, but he surely caught a nice check since the filing of the dismissal means he got his dough.
However, the terms of the settlement, which Rolling Stone reports was made late last year, will be kept private.
We’re going to go ahead and assume that OG Brooklyn Hip-Hop group Da Bush Babees, whose Ali Shaheed Muhammad produced “We Run Things (It’s Like That)” uses the same phrasing on its hook, were either too under the radar or at least got the sample cleared.
On another note, back in June, Cyrus apologized for racially insensitive comments she said about Hip-Hop a couple of years prior when she called the genre “lewd.” Not so coincidentally, she got dragged by Nicki Minaj shortly thereafter—the universe often balances things out.
