The Weeknd's mega-hit "The Hills" has already amassed nearly half a billion views on YouTube. But did it use an illegal sample? According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, Cutting Edge Music Limited is filing a lawsuit against Abel Tesfaye and co, alleging that he and his producers illegally sampled the score from 2013 sci fi film "The Machine."
At the center of the lawsuit is a Twitter DM sent on March 9, over two months before the song was released, from
"The Hills" co-producer Emmanuel "Million Dollar Mano" Nickerson to Tom Raybould, who scored "The Machine." According to the lawsuit filing, which can be read in full here, Nickerson wrote: "I sampled your music might make it 2 the weeknd next album. Huge fan of what u did 4 the machine movie!"
Guilty or nah?
[via]