Travis Scott Sued Over "Travi$ La Flame" Artwork: Report

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An artist in France claims Travis Scott used his centaur artwork without permission.

UPDATE: Ed McPherson, attorney for Travis Scott, issued a statement in response to Mehala's lawsuit. "This is clearly a frivolous and baseless filing. Anyone with access to the internet can tell you that Travis never released an album named 'La Flame.' The illustration in question was fan-made, and was uploaded to streaming services by those fans, something that any user has the option of doing. Streaming services quickly removed it after they realized that certain people were trying to pass this off as a legitimate album cover. We look forward to responding to this case and obtaining a quick dismissal," said McPherson.

Original Story: Travis Scott is facing a brand new lawsuit but this time, it has nothing to do with the tragedy that occurred at Astroworld Festival in November. According to TMZ, a lawsuit was filed against Travis Scott by a French artist accusing the rapper of stealing his artwork without permission. 

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Mickaël Mehala, an artist in France who uses the moniker Black Childish, claims that his artwork of a centaur was stolen by Travis Scott for the compilation project, Travi$ La Flame which landed on DSPs as a compilation project comprised largely of records off of Days Before Rodeo.

The artwork pops up on streaming services, including TIDAL and YouTube, which is where Mehala takes issue. He claims that the artwork was created in 2015 and DM'd to Travis Scott in 2016, the year Travi$ La Flame emerged onto streaming services. Mehala claims that Travis Scott never returned any messages and stumbled upon the artwork when he saw the project on DSPs.

Mehala filed the lawsuit in France where he stated he filed documents to register copyright for the artwork in his name in 2019. Since then, he claims that he's made several attempts to get in contact with the rapper and his legal team. Mehala said that he finally heard back from one of Scott's attorneys who claimed that Travis did not believe the artwork belonged to a specific person.

Mehala is suing Scott for hundreds of thousands of dollars and wants full ownership of the artwork. 

[Via]


About The Author
Aron A.
Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.
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