R&B singer Chris Brown is potentially looking at another copyright infringement lawsuit. The copyright infringement dispute is over Chris Brown’s 2019 song, “No Guidance”, featuring Drake, and R&B Singer Tykeiya’s 2015 song “I Got It”.

In 2015, Tykeiya, a independent female R&B artist from the Bronx, New York, created her song “I Got It”.  In 2017, Tykeiya, published “I Got It”.

In 2019, Chris Brown published his song “No Guidance” featuring Drake.  The chorus of Chris Brown’s song “No Guidance” is a continuous use of the word “You Got It”, which sounds strikingly similar to Tykeiya’s song “I Got It”.

Tykeiya was recently made aware of Chris Brown’s song “No Guidance”.  She immediately reached out to Marc Stephens, who provides consulting services to many celebrities. Most interesting, is that Stephens is not a lawyer, but is highly requested.

Stephens is not a stranger to the courts. In 2017, Stephens won a ‘right to travel’ case proven citizens are 'not required' to purchase vehicle insurance.  In 2019, Stephens successfully negotiated a copyright deal with HBO regarding the documentary called “The Apollo”.  In 2021, Marc Stephens, assisted with the release of a federal inmate under the First Step Act, which was signed into law by President Donald J. Trump in 2018.  Stephens was included on a team of lawyers, and inmate advocates, spearheaded by Kim Kardashian and Brittany Barnett. Stephens prepared a legal brief which was submitted to ICE agents and Judge at the Adelanto Immigration Facility, proving the inmate’s citizenship within the United States. The same year, Stephens was approved as "Pro Se" to give oral argument at the Appellate Division in New Jersey regarding property taxes.  Stephens argued that citizens are not required to pay property taxes.  The case was successfully Remanded back down to the lower court.  In 2022, a federal judge ruled in favor of Stephens in a $4.5 million dollar case against Experian, Equifax, Synchrony Bank, and PayPal.  Stephens’ 2014 second amendment legal argument was used in the firearm case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn, Inc. v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 - Supreme Court 2022, which is now a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court related to the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.  In 2023, a federal judge ruled in favor of Marc Stephens in his $6 million case against the City of Englewood and Englewood Police Department.

Judge Katherine R. Dupuis stated during a hearing that Stephens is highly intelligent with the law, and is better than most lawyers.

On May 29, 2024, Marc Stephens forwarded a detailed cease and desist takedown notice to YouTube, which included multiple defendants such as SONY/ATV Songs LLC, SONY Music Entertainment d/b/a RCA Records, Aubrey Drake Graham a/k/a Drake, Christopher Brown Entertainment, LLC, and Christopher Maurice Brown a/k/a Chris Brown.

Stephens’ cease and desist notice states, “I would like to inform you that your song titled below is infringing upon my client’s copyrighted work titled, “I GOT IT”, filed with the U.S. Copyright Office registration PA0002204357, effective date of registration 7/13/2019; Date of Publication 8/16/2016, Date Uploaded to YouTube: 3/8/2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgAqTENP8rY, Date of Creation under Common Law 2015, by Tykeiya Dore pka “Tykeiya”. The song “I GOT IT” was also featured in “The CODE - Episode 3”, uploaded to YouTube on 7/8/2017, see timestamp of song at 9:22 mins -10:11, https://youtu.be/KZhGqgTYyB8?t=559.”

Marc Stephens also created a comparison video of the two songs on YouTube titled, “Copyright Infringement Comparison - Tykeiya "I got It" vs Chris Brown "No Guidance" (you got it)”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILcpGW02lSE

Commentor’s on the video stated, “Wow, I would pursue a lawsuit too. It's definitely giving No Guidance sampled it..”

“They sound exactly alike. I think they did steal it”.

“These sound the same: the beat AND the words”

“Were they in the studio after Tykeiya released the song cus its exactly the same”, says another YouTube user.

On May 31, 2024, Chiara Genovese, Senior Director, Business & Legal Affairs of Sony Music, contacted Marc Stephens and informed him that the cease and desist was forwarded to Chris Brown and his lawyers. Heidi Herman of RCA Records was also included in the correspondence.

This is the fourth time Chris Brown has been sued for copyright infringement.

In 2021, Brown was sued for copying the chorus of UK artist Red Rat song, “Tight Up Skirt”. Chris Brown settled. In 2023, a judge ruled Chris Brown copied the hook of a song called “Wet”. It appears Chris Brown settled.

It’s not uncommon for music artist to be sued for copyright infringement.

In 2013, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams released “Blurred Lines.” The estate of Marvin Gaye spotted similarities to his 1977 hit “Got to Give it Up” and immediately filed a copyright infringement case. What made this case interesting is that there was no plagiarism of lyrics or sheet music, the songs are not directly similar, but the suit claims that “Blurred Lines” uses the same instrumentation and “feel” of Marvin Gaye’s hit. The verdict agreed with the Gaye estate, awarding them $4.9 million, and 50 percent of all future royalties of the song.

Marvin Gaye vs. Robin Thicke & Pharrell Williams case established a precedent that a song’s overall vibe can be protected, not just the music and lyrics.

Marc Stephens is raising the same legal argument regarding Chris Brown’s song “No Guidance” and Tykeiya’s song “I Got It”.

"Chris Brown is infringing upon the song “I Got it” by using the same chord progressions, tempo, pitch, key, melody, harmony, rhythm, structure, phrasing, and lyrics", says Marc Stephens.

Chris Brown’s song “No Guidance” was a huge commercial success, which led to it being certified octuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), quadruple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), and triple platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (MC). The song “No Guidance” won three Soul Train Music Awards and received a nomination for Best R&B Song at the 62nd Grammy Awards. The audio and music video combined has over 805 million views on YouTube.

The success of Chris Brown’s song “No Guidance” is largely due to Tykeiya’s copyrighted work.

“I enjoy Chris Brown’s music, but I don’t think he should get away with copying my work. I was a teenager when I wrote “I Got It”, says Tykeiya.

Tykeiya, who is represented by Stephens, did not disclose the amount of damages that she is seeking, but stated a lawsuit will be filed soon.