Did Yung Gravy just rickroll himself into a lawsuit?
What is Yung Gravy up to this time? Is he dating a pornstar? Is he taking Addison Rae’s mother to the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards? Nope. Rick Astley is suing him. You heard me right, the ’80s singer is suing Gravy for his song “Betty (Get Money).”
Astley filed the lawsuit on Jan. 26. Yung Gravy — who’s known formally as Matthew Raymond Hauri — and his team had procured the rights to record similar parts of the melody and lyrics for the core part of the song’s backing track. In music, this is known as “interpolation.”
After all, it’s not uncommon for rappers and hip-hop artists to sample other musicians’ work, right? Unfortunately for Gravy’s case, it happens to be more complicated than that. In “Betty (Get Money),” you can hear singer Nick Seeley (Popnick) impersonating Astley, singing “Get Money” in the chorus. That was the final straw that led to the lawsuit.
According to SkyNews, Astley says he wants “the profits of the song.” He also wants the “millions of dollars in damages.” Apparently, Yung Gravy had gone overboard. He toed the line, stole Astley’s voice, and had Popnick impersonate him, instead of just using the melodic track. It’s too soon to know the fate of the Rochester, MN native rapper. What do you think — did he do it for the rickroll clout?
Graphic by Carleen Loney @shloneys