Hip-hop star French Montana stole the beat for his hit song “Lockjaw” from a fan, according to a new Manhattan federal lawsuit.
Assil Youssef, a Moroccan music producer who works under the stage name Yo Asel, claimed he sent his work “Sleep85” to French Montana, whose real name is Karim Kharbouch, in late 2015.
Youssef said he sent the work because he thought of the fellow Moroccan native as a “role model of a successful artist from his own country.”
“French responded to the email four days later with a message that said ‘Send more,” according to the Manhattan federal copyright lawsuit.
Youssef, in turn, was “excited at the prospect that his hard work would start paying off at such an early stage of his career.”
French Montana and another artist, Dieuson Octave, known popularly as “Kodak Black,” released “Lockjaw” a few months later, in May 2016.
“(Youssef) was shocked to learn that the instrumental track he had sent to French Montana months earlier was modified slightly and used – without (his) consent – as the beat for Lockjaw,” the lawsuit states.
A spokeswoman for French Montana, whose family settled in the Bronx when he was a teen, did not return a request for comment.
Youssef is seeking unspecified damages.