A TikTok rapper will be going against Sony Music Entertainment in court.
According to Billboard, 20-year-old rapper Dantreal Clark-Rainbolt, more commonly known as Trefuego, had a viral hit on TikTok thanks to his release of “90mh.” The songs was featured in at least 155,000 videos on the platform. Additionally, it has been streamed a minimum of 100 million times on Spotify.
The outlet also reported he has garnered significant earnings from the song’s popularity, with estimates reaching almost $700,000. However, it appears the rapper won’t be able to roll in the dough for much longer.
He is now in troubled water for utilizing a copyright sample from Toshifumi Hinata’s 1986 song “Reflections,” according to Rolling Stone.
“Trefuego brazenly sought to ride the coattails of Hinata’s creativity and popularity without regard to the United States copyright laws or the rights of plaintiffs,” Sony’s attorneys wrote per Billboard. “He used and copied plaintiffs’ work without so much as asking, or paying a cent to plaintiffs, and he continued to exploit that music despite plaintiffs’ demand that he stop.”
Sony had made several attempts to contact Trefuego, which included in-person. Though the rapper reportedly lives in the Forth Worth, TX, area, per another Billboard article, the court had been unable to reach him. After approval by the judge to contact Trefuego through a direct message on social media, the court has ruled. Now, Trefuego is being ordered to pay Sony Music $802,997.23 in damages. The compensation considers the song’s earnings as well as licensing fees to Sony Music.
“The court hopes this case will serve as a $802,997.23 lesson for defendant in carefully selecting the materials included in his raps,” U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman wrote in his decision, per Billboard.
The judge wrote, “To quote ’90mh’, this case involves a young man who was ‘too focused on getting dough’ to understand the broader implications of purchasing a creative work without proof of originality or license-to-use. To quote ‘90mh’ again, Trefuego likely imagined Sony wouldn’t ‘really want smoke’ enough to prosecute this claim. But they did.”
