Photo Credit: Ice Spice’s Instagram
Ice Spice has reached a settlement to end the copyright infringement lawsuit against her over the hit song, ‘In Ha Mood.’
Ice Spice has reached an agreement to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against her by a Brooklyn rapper who claimed her hit song, “In Ha Mood,” was copied from his earlier song, “In That Mood.”
The case, filed earlier this year by Duval Chamberlain, who released a song in 2021 as rapper D.Chamberz, claimed that Ice Spice’s 2023 hit was “strikingly similar” to his track. But attorneys for both sides said in a motion filed in federal court over the weekend, that they had agreed to resolve the lawsuit. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, and neither side has responded to media requests for comment.
D.Chamberz claimed the two songs were so similar that it “cannot be purely coincidental,” asserting that those similarities are at “the core of each work,” and that listeners had identified those similarities as well. “By every method of analysis, ‘In Ha Mood’ is a forgery,” his attorneys wrote in the lawsuit filed in January. “Any proper comparative analysis of the beat, lyrics, hook, rhythmic structure, metrical placement, and narrative context will demonstrate that ‘In Ha Mood’ was copied.”
Further, the lawsuit claimed that Chambers’ song received “significant airplay” on New York City radio stations, including Hot 97, where Ice Spice’s frequent producer RiotUSA’s father is a longtime DJ. Therefore, the filing says, Ice Spice and others involved in her song’s creation would have had plenty of opportunity to have heard the earlier track.
Ice Spice, under her legal name Isis Naija Gaston, was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, as well as RiotUSA (Ephrem Lopez, Jr.), Universal Music Group, Capitol Records, and 10K Projects. Defendants formally denied the allegations back in April, but the case remained in its infancy until Friday, when the agreement was reached.
“In Ha Mood” debuted early last year after Ice Spice’s breakthrough the prior year and spent 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached No. 58 on that chart and No. 18 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was included on her debut EP, Like..?, and saw a live performance on Saturday Night Live during Ice Spice’s October appearance as the show’s musical guest.
