(AllHipHop News) Nicki Minaj is pushing for a jury trial to determine the outcome of the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against her by singer Tracy Chapman.
The “Anaconda” hitmaker had originally intended to include the tune on her album Queen, but ended up releasing the project without Sorry as she encountered clearance issues.
However, she has since decided to seek a jury trial to clear her name.
In her latest legal filing, Nicki Minaj admits she had initially planned to leak the track to Funkmaster Flex, teasing the exclusive in a direct message via Instagram.
“Sorry” debuted on air a week later, and subsequently made its way to the Internet – prompting Chapman’s ire, but Minaj claims it didn’t come from her.
“At the time I sent these messages, I intended to send Flex a copy of Sorry to play on his radio program,” Nicki testified. “That day, however, I had a change of heart. I never sent the recording.”
Funk Flex also testified that he had obtained “Sorry” from one of his “bloggers” not from the star or her recording engineer, who had been in the studio with the rappers at the time, and when Nicki Minaj heard the news, she warned him, “You can only play official album material sir.”
As a result, Nicki Minaj’s attorney Peter Ross argued the evidence “in many instances directly contradicts Chapman’s story”, which holds the 37 year old accountable for passing along the tune, and “leaves open many possibilities as to ‘who done it?'”
“We do not know to whom management, the record label, or the clearance team may have sent a copy,” Ross continued, before suggesting Nicki Minaj’s collaborator could be to blame.
“And Nas had a copy, as Chapman notes in her own motion. He, of course, would be an obvious target, if Flex and his interns were reaching out to a source to find the recording.”
The case continues.