Childish Gambino sued by rapper claiming ‘This Is America’ was a rip-off of his work

Kidd Wes is suing Gambino, as well as all co-writers and Roc Nation over the alleged similarities

According to recent reports, Childish Gambino is getting sued by a rapper who claims his Grammy award-winning song, “This Is America” is a rip-off of a lesser-known song.

Read More: Top Hollywood agency, ICM accused of racial bias in agent-trainee program

Kidd Wes (Emelike Nwosuocha) found Childish Gambino’s Record of the Year-winning hit song a little too similar to his own. Per TMZ, the rapper released a song in 2017 entitled “Made in America,” which he claims sounds eerily similar to Childish Gambino’s smash hit.

Two years before Gambino’s song, Wes reportedly registered “Made in America” with the U.S. Copyright Office and had it set as the lead single to his then-upcoming album.

2019 LACMA Art + Film Gala Honoring Betye Saar And Alfonso Cuarón Presented By Gucci - Inside
Donald Glover, attends the 2019 LACMA Art Film Gala Presented By Gucci at LACMA on November 02, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for LACMA)

TMZ reports that according to the official documents, “Kidd Wes claims the chorus, or hook, of ‘This is America’ is ‘unmistakably substantially similar, if not practically identical to his ‘Made in America.'”

In addition, Kidd Wes is even claiming that the rapper’s “flow” is similar in the song, specifically in the respective hooks.

The rapper also believes that the song was intentionally stolen. Per TMZ, “Kidd Wes claims there are also scientific similarities in the 2 tracks, and alleges it’s not a coincidence — he believes he was intentionally ripped off, and he wants major damages.”

As theGrio previously reported, Childish Gambino, born Donald Glover, made history when he won Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “This Is America” at the 2019 Grammy Awards. It became the first rap song to ever win Song of the Year.

Read More: Childish Gambino makes GRAMMYs history but skips the awards show despite major wins

Gambino added to another statistic by not attending the awards to pick up his trophy as it was “the first time since 2008 that a winner in one of the Big 4 categories missed the ceremony.”

60th Annual GRAMMY Awards - Arrivals
Recording artist Childish Gambino attends the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Read More: Rapper G Herbo charged with lying to federal investigators

Kidd Wes is not only suing Gambino, but he is also reportedly suing all co-writers on the song, Roc Nation and even Young Thug (who has backup vocal credits on the song.) theGrio reached out to Gambino’s reps but has not heard back from them yet.

Check out the video for “This is America” below:

Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!

The post Childish Gambino sued by rapper claiming ‘This Is America’ was a rip-off of his work appeared first on TheGrio.