Beyoncé is facing a lawsuit for alleged copyright infringement over a sample used in her hit song Break My Soul released in 2022.
Da Showstoppaz members filed a lawsuit in a Louisiana federal court claiming that Big Freedia’s song Explode, which was sampled in Break My Soul, unlawfully used copyrighted lyrics, melody, and musical arrangement from their song Release a Wiggle, released in 2002.
The bounce group stated that Beyoncé and Big Freedia profited significantly from Break My Soul, Beyoncé’s album Renaissance, her Renaissance World Tour, and concert film, while Da Showstoppaz received no recognition, credit, or compensation.
“Explode infringes on Da Showstoppaz’s Release A Wiggle twelve times, as the infringing phrase ‘release yo’ wiggle’ and several other substantially similar phrases are featured prominently in the song and evenly spread out across Explode’s furious two-minute and forty-seven second runtime,” the lawsuit reads, according to USA Today. “Any reasonable person listening to Release A Wiggle and Explode would conclude that the songs are substantially similar.”
Da Showstoppaz is seeking to be credited on both songs, as well as royalties for future use of the tracks. They are also requesting damages for the profits made by Beyoncé and Big Freedia from the songs in question.
