The label behind the release of Pop Smoke’s chart-topping album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon is facing a lawsuit from a blogger who claims she was jerked out of a ton of money.
Victoria Inoyo filed a lawsuit against Pop Smoke’s label Victor Victor Worldwide, over an interview with the Brooklyn rapper that she conducted at Rolling Loud in December of 2019.
According to Inoyo, she registered a copyright for the interview in 2020 to cover her and Pop Smoke’s vocals for the interview.
In June of 2019, reps for Victor Victor reached out to Inoyo to use a portion of her interview with Pop Smoke. The label offered her $1 to use the interview on the album, but she rebuffed the paltry offer.
Inoyo tried to arrange a more equitable situation for herself because she wanted the interview to be on the critically acclaimed rapper’s posthumous debut. However, the negotiations fell through after some back-and-forth between Inoyo’s lawyers and counsel for Victor Victor Worldwide.
“To the shock and chagrin of Ms. Inoyo, the label used the interview without Ms. Inoyo’s consent, or permission, and without compensating her on the track ‘Tunnel Vision (Outro).'” Victoria Inoyo lawyer Andrew Williams.
Inoyo says the label illegally used :16 seconds of her interview, which amounted to 12% of “Tunnel Vision (Outro).”
“The label knew that it did not have Ms. Inoyo’s permission to use the interview; yet, rather than negotiate with Ms. Inoyo in good-faith in order to obtain her permission to use the interview, the label inexcusably and unjustifiably used the interview and released the album and the song for commercial distribution in violation of, among other things, Ms. Inoyo’s copyrights and her intellectual property,” Pop Smoke’s lawyer Andrew Williams explained.
Inoyo is suing for copyright infringement, unjust enrichment. She wants $1.5 million in damages, credit as a writer on Pop Smoke’s album, and a percentage of the publishing income earned from Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon.