Daft Punk and The Weeknd – real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye – are reportedly being sued by Somali-American poet Yasminah for ‘ripping off’ her song ‘Hooyo’.
In the $5 million lawsuit, Yasminah accuses the French duo and Tesfaye of “stealing the beat” for their track, ‘Starboy’. She also accuses them of using the “same hook, same key and a similar tempo.”
The trio released ‘Starboy’ in 2016, while Yasminah released her song in 1999. She also claims Tesfaye only knows about her songs because of his East African background. You can listen to both tracks below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxsXomb2jKY
According to TMZ, Yasminah has threatened Tesfaye with legal action before, claiming that two of her producers had previously reached a settlement.
Yasminah claims she “never got a cut” of that alleged settlement, which has caused her to sue Tesfaye – and Daft Punk – again.
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Last month, The Weeknd debuted two new songs including a ‘My Dear Melancholy’ remix featuring Quavo. He premiered the tracks during the second episode of his Beats 1 show ‘Memento Mori’.
He also contributed to two recent albums – Nicki Minaj’s ‘Queen’ and Travis Scott’s chart-topping ‘Astroworld’. NME gave ‘Astroworld’ a score of five stars, writing: “The rapper has produced a lush, complex, extraordinarily accomplished album that invites us mere mortals to peer in at his life behind the velvet rope.”
Earlier this year, Tesfaye revealed that he had finished work on a “very upbeat” and “beautiful” album, but said it will never be released.
After the release of ‘My Dear Melancholy’, he explained that he had an entirely different record written and complete. He said that the project was shelved as it doesn’t reflect his current feelings.
“Prior to Melancholy, I had a whole album written, done, which wasn’t melancholy at all because it was a different time in my life…It was very upbeat — it was beautiful,” he told Time.