ICE SPICE ACCUSED OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT FOR POPULAR SONG "IN HA MOOD”

On Wednesday, drill sensation Ice Spice was sued by two musicians from New York who claimed that her 2023 smash “In Ha Mood” violated the rights of their earlier song “In That Mood.”

The two plaintiffs, Duval “D.Chamberz” Chamberlain, a rapper and songwriter from Brooklyn, and Kenley “Kass the Producer” Carmenate, a sound engineer and producer from the Bronx, accused Ice Spice and her producer Riot of “copying” the title, hook, chorus, phrasing, and tempo of their song without their consent or acknowledgment.

The lawsuit, which Rolling Stone obtained, stated that the two songs “are so strikingly similar that they cannot be purely coincidental.”

“It is simply not reasonable to believe that ‘In Ha Mood’ could have been created without having heard (‘In That Mood’) first,” the suit argued, pointing out the similarities between the two songs, “including the key phrase used in the chorus and repeated in a substantially similar manner numerous times throughout both songs.” Chamberlain and Carmenate said they created and recorded “In That Mood” before Chamberlain posted it on Instagram for the first time on Aug. 8, 2021. The song was then released as a single in early 2022 for an ad campaign that never happened and later in July 2022 as part of Chamberlain’s album “Boom Bap 2 Drill Rap,” according to the filing.

The Brooklyn rapper-songwriter said he performed the song in public at least 36 times in New York and other states such as West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida. Ice Spice’s representative could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. The plaintiffs are seeking damages in the trial.

Ice Spice won Best New Artist at the 2023 MTV VMA Awards last year with hits like “Princess Diana” with Nicki Minaj and “Karma” with Taylor Swift. She has also started to tease new music for 2024 with a clip of what seemed to be a new song earlier this month along with a meme that said: “Think You the Shit, Bitch! You Not Even the Fart.”

The lawsuit alleged that Ice Spice, Riot, and/or their creative teams “were present for certain public performances of In That Mood during the relevant time period.” It also said that the plaintiffs “are well-known in the rap and hip-hop community and share a substantial number of undeniable connections with Defendants.”