Travis Scott, SZA, and Future Face ‘Telekinesis’ Copyright Lawsuit From Roc Nation-Signed Artist

Did Travis Scott, SZA, and Future steal from an existing track to create “Telekinesis”? A Roc Nation-signed singer-songwriter believes so, and she’s fired off a firmly worded infringement suit as a result.

Victory Boyd just recently submitted that suit to a New York federal court, naming as defendants Travis Scott, SZA, Future, Sony Music, and several others.

Roc Nation isn’t a party to the relatively straightforward action, but Boyd is currently signed to the Jay-Z-founded company’s label.

Moreover, bearing in mind Roc Nation’s NFL tie-up, it was only in late September that Texas-based Boyd performed the national anthem before the Giants took on the Cowboys.

Evidently, though, the alleged infringement was weighing on the artist’s mind even as she kicked off the game.

As Boyd tells the story, she wrote and then recorded as a voice note a demo entitled “Like the Way It Sounds” in November 2019. The artist promptly shared the work (later copyrighted under registration number SR0000986420) with Kanye West, according to the legal text.

In short, West purportedly based multiple tracks on “Like the Way It Sounds,” but opted against officially releasing any of the derivatives on Donda.

Nevertheless, the non-party West is said to have played Boyd’s song for Travis Scott and then left the creation “in a studio in Wyoming.” Scott allegedly accessed “Like the Way It Sounds” through said studio.

Fast forward to May 2023, when Scott allegedly introduced SZA and Future to the relevant effort; the three then allegedly lifted lyrics and more sans permission to put out “Telekinesis” towards the end of July 2023.

Needless to say, that move isn’t sitting right with the plaintiff, who says she’s actually credited as a “Telekinesis” co-writer in streaming metadata. (At the time of writing, Spotify as well as YouTube were, in fact, displaying “Telekinesis” as one of the top results in searches for “Like the Way It Sounds.”)

And in November 2023, Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Audemars Piguet, also a defendant, allegedly contacted Boyd when seeking to license the appropriate Scott work for an advert campaign. The plaintiff says she denied the request and wasn’t contacted by any of the other defendants to authorize the usage, which occurred in any event.

However, these other defendants did recently attempt “to credit Plaintiff as an 8% writing contributor” on “Telekinesis,” the lawsuit maintains. While it’s perhaps a given in light of the litigation, Boyd opted against accepting the alleged credit offer.

Instead, she’s demanding a sizable pile of damages, a preliminary injunction blocking the “further broadcast” of “Telekinesis,” and more.