Drake to Take Witness Stand During Trial Over Music Sampling

Drake is scheduled to take the witness stand next month, during a trial over alleged music sampling.

In 2014, the rapper/singer was accused of sampling jazz musician Jimmy Smith for his track “Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2,” but denied the claims.

The late jazz musician’s estate has since sued Drake, with The Blast now alleging he will likely be required to testify in the case while sitting in front of a jury.

In a previous court case regarding the song, U.S. District Court judge William H. Pauley III ruled in Drake’s favor, saying that the rapper’s use of the sample of “Jimmy Smith Rap” was fair because it was transformed.

The Jimmy Smith estate argues that Drake used a lot of the musicians original content in his sample, thus defining it as copyright infringement, but the judge did not see it that way.

“Far from being extraneous to ‘Pound Cake’s’ statement on the importance of ‘real’ music, Defendants’ use of the lines describing the recording of Off the Top serve to drive the point home,” Judge Pauley explained in his ruling. “The full extent of the commentary is, in this Court’s view, that many musicians make records in similar ways (e.g. with the help of A&R experts or the stimulating effects of champagne), but that only ‘real’ music — regardless of creative process or genre — will stand the test of time.”

The ongoing case of the “Jimmy Smith Rap” sample is not Drake’s only headline making controversy this year, as at the beginning of the summer he found himself in feud with rapper Pusha T that saw the two release diss tracks against one another.

Pusha T got personal on “The Story of Adidon,” claiming that Drake had a secret love child he had been hiding. Pusha T also accused Drake of being a deadbeat dad, with Drake vehemently denied while confirming that he did in fact have a child with an ex-girlfriend.

Drake spoke about the feud on HBO’s The Shop with LeBron James and Maverick Carter, saying that he felt Pusha T definitely crossed a line.

“Rap purists and people who love confrontation, they love to say, “There’s no rules to this s—!” There are f—ing rules to this s—,” he said. “I’m gonna tell you something, I knew something was gonna come up about my kid. They had to add the deadbeat dad thing to make it more appealing, which is fine. The mom and dad thing… Whatever.”

“You don’t even know my family. But wishing death upon my friend who has MS… I study rap battles for a living. When you mention defenseless people who are sick in the hospital, who have passed away, I just believe that there’s a price you have to pay for that,” he added. “It’s over! Someone’s gonna f—ing punch you in the f—ing face. The s—’s done, the event’s over. I wanted to do other things. I didn’t want to further your career by rapping back to you and having this exchange.”

At this time, Drake does not appear to have commented on the news of his upcoming testimony.