The battle between musicians Rick Astley and Yung Gravy is over as the ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ singer has settled his lawsuit against the rapper for plagiarising his song ‘Betty (Get Money)’.
According to legal documents obtained by 'People' magazine, the iconic pop singer, 57, and the meme rapper, 27, settled the lawsuit filed by Astley in January against Gravy (born Matthew Hauri) and his collaborators for an undisclosed sum.
Gravy filed a notice of settlement, while Astley filed a notice of dismissal in his copyright infringement suit with an order to show cause hearing set for November 8, which had heated things up.
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The new lawsuit was filed by Richard Busch, the music litigator who won the copyright case over ‘Blurred Lines’. The whole case was filed by Astley against Gravy for copying his song ‘Betty (Get Money)’ in one of his tracks, using an exactly ‘indistinguishable’ tune.
The lawsuit read: "The public could not tell the difference. The imitation of Mr. Astley's voice was so successful the public believed it was actually Mr. Astley singing. It also added that the impersonation of his voice was done 'In an effort to capitalise off of the immense popularity and goodwill of Mr. Astley'".
Also included in the lawsuit was the voice impersonator, Nick Seeley (aka Popnick). "A license to use the original underlying musical composition does not authorise the stealing of the artiste's voice in the original recording," Astley's lawyers wrote. "So, instead, they resorted to theft of Mr. Astley's voice without a license and without agreement."
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Astley has cited an August, 2022, interview Gravy gave to Billboard where the rapper said, "My boy Nick, who does a lot of sample replays and recreating original samples, we basically remade the whole song. Had a different singer and instruments, but it was all really close because it makes it easier legally".
The filing also stated that Astley had wanted to use his voice to collaborate with another artiste on a future project, but the release of the Gravy's track made it impossible.
The suit also explained that Astley's distinctive voice is a resource that needs to be carefully managed, and he never granted permission to use or impersonate his voice.
