Travis Scott has been named in a lawsuit over a distinctive guitar melody on his track “Highest in the Room.”
Benjamin Lasnier, Olivier Bassil and Lukas Benjamin Leth filed a claim Tuesday in California alleging they wrote a song titled “Cartier” in 2019 using the guitar line (created by Lasnier) and sent it to more than 100 producers for consideration.
Among those who allegedly received it were Scott’s engineering assistant Jimmy Cash (aka Jamie Lepr) and producers OZ (Ozan Yildrim) and Nik D (Nik Dejan Frascona), who are named as defendants along with Scott, two other collaborators and several labels and publishers.
Lasnier claims he had correspondence with Lepr, who was “pretending to be interested in a collaboration.”
The plaintiffs accuse Lepr and the other defendants of “exploiting plaintiffs' work without consent or a license, masquerading as if plaintiffs' music is their own.” They are seeking damages as well as a cut of royalties from the song, which they figure has earned more than $20 million U.S.
“Highest in the Room” debuted last October at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
None of the allegations have been proven in court and the plaintiffs have not responded publicly.
Richard Busch, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement: “Our clients are very successful songwriters/producers who … corresponded with the defendant writers with an eye toward licensing their work through a collaboration. They never expected that this would end up in a lawsuit but felt they had no choice but to take this action under these circumstances.”