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Beyonce Sued For $20 Million By The Estate Of Messy Mya Over 'formation'

claiming that the superstar lifted portions of Mya's "Booking the Hoes From New Wildings" and "A 27 Piece Huh." The suit claims that Beyonce sampled Mya's voice and lyrics, including as "What happened at the New Orleans" and "B***h, I'm back by popular demand" for her song "Formation." The estate states it has "received nothing...no acknowledgment, no credit no remuneration of any kind" and asserts that they attempted to reach out to Beyonce and never heard back. Barre's estate (primarily Mya's sister) is suing Queen Bey for royalties, and Sony Music and Jay Z are also named in the suit. Mya's sister is also seeking proper credit "as a writer, composer, producer and performer" for her brother. New Orleans artist Messy Mya was known for his music and YouTube following before he was tragically murdered in 2010. Listening to both the "Bookings" and "Formation" videos, it is fairly obvious that Mya's voice kicks off "Formation," and it will be hard for Beyonce and her counsel to refute it. Beyonce could be in big trouble if a judge determines that Mya's lyrics and voice were used without permission. If so, Bey's counsel might try to reach a settlement that includes remuneration and proper credit. Beyonce might have
thought that this was an homage to Mya, but the estate thinks otherwise. It seems like it would be fairly easy, at a reasonable price, for Beyonce to clear any Mya samples, so it remains to be seen what her legal position will be. If, as the lawsuit states, Beyonce used the "voice, performance and words from his copyrighted works to create the tone, mood, setting and location of the New Orleans-themed 'Formation' video and audio recordings," then Beyonce might hope she had cleared the samples. Since Beyonce is sampling Mya's voice, she might argue fair use, noting that the song is making a "political statement," although that seems far-fetched. The "Formation" video starts off with images such as a car immersed in water evoking Hurricane Katrina and portrays other Southern (think Nola) settings throughout. "Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses-such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research-as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use." Beyonce has profited greatly from the Grammy-nominated, chart-topping single, even if the video has political undertones, a judge might side with Barre's Estate if this case goes that far.

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