The Black Panther soundtrack has been one of the biggest albums of the year thus far. With Kendrick Lamar undertaking the curation of the project and performing on the majority of the songs, the album was bound to be a hit but the extent of its reach could not have been predicted by many. With nearly every song lending a different story to complete the soundtrack, it will likely be on many people's top 10 lists at the end of the year. While much of the coverage surrounding Black Panther has been positive, it was previously reported that Kendrick Lamar and SZA were wrapped up in a lawsuit for allegedly stealing artwork for the "All The Stars" music video. While the TDE labelmates remained silent until now, both have responded to the lawsuit to deny any plagiarism or outright theft of Lina Iris Viktor's art.
According to The Blast, Viktor was contacted twice about the use of her "Constellations" series for the film, to which she refused. When she noticed the resemblance between her work and a set in the "All The Stars" video, Viktor began claiming that the artists recreated her work without her permission. On May 18, both SZA and Kendrick reportedly formally responded to the suit by denying any wrongdoing in regards to the creation of the video, noting that their piece was independently created without ripping off Viktor's work. They are seeking to have the case dropped as Kenny and SZA claim that if any portions of the video are, indeed, similar to Viktor's "Constellations," it is fair use without any copyright to go off of.
Judge for yourself. Do you think the TDE artists ripped off Viktor's art? Compare the two here.