Nicki Minaj’s ‘I Lied’ Ripped Off Composer’s Work, Suit Says

Rapper Nicki Minaj and Universal Music Group Inc. copied a composer’s music from a stolen hard drive to make Minaj’s 2014 song “I Lied,” a lawsuit in California federal court said.

Minaj’s song had “substantially identical underlying instrumentation and beat” as songwriter and composer Julius Johnson’s “onmysleeve” instrumental that he posted online in 2011, Johnson told the US District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint, filed Monday, included a link posted by his counsel that overlays the works, toggling between each work and playing them in tandem.

The suit seeks actual and exemplary damages from Minaj, Universal, ...