by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton
May 13, 2025
He claims he’s received no payments after clearing the sample
West Coast rapper Rodney O has filed a lawsuit against fellow recording artists Kendrick Lamar, Future, and Metro Boomin over unpaid royalties from “Like That,” the song that elevated the rift between Lamar and Drake.
According to TMZ, although Metro Boomin sampled Rodney O & Joe Cooley’s 1986 song, Everlasting Bass, for the song that featured Lamar dissing Drake and J. Cole, he has not been paid anything from the producer using his record as the underlying track to the song.
Speaking to the media outlet, Rodney stated that he does not have beef with the three artists but insists that Epic Records and Barry White’s estate are the reasons he has not seen any payouts. Everlasting Bass lifted White’s 1973 song “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby” for the song they recorded almost 40 years ago.
Coincidentally, in October 2024, the Estate of Barry White sued Rodney for copyright infringement for not receiving its permission to sample White’s work for what he created in 1986. The estate admitted to waiting almost 40 years to file the lawsuit because the sampled work was “released prior to the internet and was not widely distributed,” which leaves the estate “unaware of the song when it was first released.”
During Rodney’s conversation with TMZ, he stated he did not even know Lamar was supposed to be on the track because what he was sent did not have his vocals on the song. He said Epic sent it to him just before it was released, and only Future’s vocals appeared on the track.
“I didn’t even know Kendrick was on it until a day before when somebody called and said, ‘I heard Kendrick is on that record,’” he said. “And I said, ‘No, I have the record. He’s not on there, and the song was like two minutes.”
However, the media outlet spoke to a representative of Metro and was told that not only did they get clearance from Rodney, but he was paid $50,000 for the sample. The rep stated that the recording artist’s beef is with White’s estate, and they may be holding up his royalty payments.
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