The Poet Whose Lawsuit Couldn’t Stop the Party

1. The Origin

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- In 1968, Abiodun Oyewole, one of three members of The Last Poets, wrote a poem called “When the Revolution Comes.” Chanted raplike to the beat of a congo drum, it’s an angry work predicting that one day “blood will run through the streets of Harlem.” It also laments that, before that moment, too many black people will “party and bullshit.”

2. The Suit

Fast-forward to 2016: Oyewole hears the song How We Do (Party), from singer Rita Ora’s 2012 debut studio album, Ora. The song opens with the repeated phrase “party and bullshit.” Oyewole already knew that Notorious B.I.G. had written a rap song titled Party and Bullshit in 1992. Angered by Ora’s use of the phrase, he sues Ora, B.I.G.’s estate, and various related entities for copyright infringement.

3. The Trial

There was no trial. There weren’t even any oral arguments. In March 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Allison Nathan granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss. She did so in an interesting way, ignoring a classic music industry argument—i.e., that Oyewole’s poem and the later songs weren’t substantially similar—and relying instead on fair use doctrine, often used to defend the use of similar words or plots in journalism or literature.

4. The Twist

Oyewole’s core complaint had been that Ora and B.I.G. didn’t just borrow the phrase “party and bullshit,” they used it to suggest fun, in “contravention” of Oyewole’s desire to “encourage people NOT to waste time with party and bullshit.” That’s what doomed him: One of the factors in determining whether the use of someone else’s words is “fair” or not is whether the new work is “transformative.” Because Ora’s and Biggie’s use of “party and bullshit” was the opposite of Oyewole’s, the judge ruled, what they did was legal. On Sept. 4, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed that Nathan had issued “a thorough and well-reasoned opinion.” The likelihood that Oyewole will appeal to the Supreme Court seems, er, slim.

Abiodun Oyewole v. Rita Ora et al.
Case # 1:16-cv-01912

• In case you’re curious, here’s an excerpt of the lyrics from How We Do (Party): “I wanna party and bullshit … / … ’Cause when the sun sets baby / On the avenue / I get that drunk sex feeling / Yeah, when I’m with you / So put your arms around me, baby / We’re tearing up the town / ’Cause that’s just how we do.”
 
• Christopher Wallace, aka the Notorious B.I.G., was given a songwriting credit on Ora’s single. So was Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. Each was among the 14 co-defendants named in Oyewole’s suit, alongside the Roc Nation music label and several music publishing companies.
 
Nocera is a business columnist for Bloomberg Opinion

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jillian Goodman at jgoodman74@bloomberg.net

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.