Shenseea To Answer ‘Foreplay’ Lawsuit By January 20
Shenseea and her label Interscope Records have until late January to respond to a lawsuit over the Jamaican singer’s music video for Foreplay, court filings revealed on Monday (December 19).
US-based visual artist Stephanie Sarley had filed the lawsuit on October 21 in the US District Court for the Central District of California, alleging that Shenseea’s Foreplay video had ripped off “nearly forty seconds of footage” from her “unique line of sensual fruit imagery” without permission.
According to the court records obtained by DancehallMag, the Blessed singer, 26, and UMG Recordings, Inc (the parent company for Interscope) were served with the complaint on November 30. They have agreed with Sarley to respond to her complaint by January 20, 2023.
“The Parties have conferred and agree, and hereby stipulate, to extend the time for Defendant to answer or otherwise respond to Plaintiff’s Complaint by not more than thirty (30) days, from the current deadline of December 21, 2022 to January 20, 2023,” the Parties told the court in the joint filing on Monday.
Shenseea and Interscope are being represented by the national law firm Ballard Spahr LLP, while Sarley is being represented by California-based Pietz & Shahriari, LLP, the court records show.
Sarley is seeking “an award of damages, including actual damages and the disgorgement of any and all gains, profits and advantages obtained by Defendants” or, alternatively, “for an award of statutory damages in an amount of up to $150,000” for each of her three “Original Works,” plus attorney fees, interest, and costs.
The Foreplay video was first released in October 2019, after Shenseea signed with Interscope Records and Rvssian‘s Rich Immigrants in May of that year.
The music video was subsequently removed from YouTube after Sarley called out Shenseea’s alleged infringement on Instagram and threatened legal action.
In early December 2019, Shenseea released an edited version of the Foreplay video, devoid of Sarley’s fruit clips.
Shenseea is also facing another lawsuit over Lick, which appeared on her debut album Alpha.
That suit, filed by NY-based producer Anastas ‘Pupa Nas-T’ Hackett in March this year, alleged that the song, which featured rapper Megan Thee Stallion, had used elements of Denise Belfon’s Soca song Work without the producer’s consent.