Rapper Roddy Ricch Didn’t Infringe Song’s Copyright, Judge Says

Roddy Ricch’s 2019 hip-hop hit “The Box” didn’t infringe the rights to a decades-old R&B song, because an ordinary listener would find the two songs don’t sound alike, a federal judge said.

Peabody & Company LLC, a California-based music company previously owned by the late singer Greg Perry, in 2022 sued Roderick Wayne, Jr., known as Roddy Ricch, and his record label, Atlantic Records, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for copyright infringement. Peabody alleged “The Box” copied the sound of Perry’s 1975 “Come on Down (Get Your Head Out of the Clouds).”

Courts ...