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The music industry has a tendency to pump out a number of huge acts that take the world by storm before fizzling out after most people come to their senses; the kind of artists that reach a level of popularity that will leave future generations scratching their heads and whose largely bygone fame can only be explained by “The [insert decade here] was a weird time.”
That’s arguably the case with the Black Eyed Peas, as the quartet comprised of Fergie, will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo absolutely dominated the charts in the 2000s with the help of unavoidable hits like “Let’s Get It Started,” Where is the Love,” and “I Gotta Feeling” (the last of which was seemingly engineered in a lab to ensure it will be a staple at weddings and bar mitzvahs until the end of time).
It’s impossible to talk about the group’s body of work without mentioning “My Humps,” the single off of 2005’s Monkey Business where its lone female member repeatedly sings about her “lovely lady lumps.”
I’m certainly not going to pretend like I possess the musical knowledge required to make an overarching statement about the artistic merits of that particular track. However, it would appear the Black Eyed Peas and their label feel it has a message worth protecting to the tune of $10 million based on a lawsuit that was recently filed in federal court.
According to Rolling Stone, BMG Rights Management believes MGA Entertainment—the toymaker behind Poopsie Slime Surprise dolls—should be forced to fork after that sum due to “My Poops,” a song where an animated unicorn utters the words “Ima get loopy off my poopy” à la Fergie and Co.
According to the filing that was recently submitted to the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the label asserts MGA “created a song called My Poops that clearly copies from, and is substantially similar to, My Humps” and believes it’s entitled to $10 million in damages because “My Poops” allegedly “devalued future licenses.”
It’s very, very likely the company being sued will argue the song about unicorns that poop glitter is protected by the First Amendment under the parody laws that allowed Weird Al to have a career—and words can’t describe how happy I am to know there’s a team of corporate lawyers who are all getting paid a laughable amount of money to make that very case.