Songwriters Dion Norman and Derrick Ordogne have dropped their copyright lawsuit against Travis Scott and Sony Music.
The pair filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on October 9, ending a case that had been running for nearly three years.
The dismissal is without prejudice, which means Norman and Ordogne can bring the same claims again. The notice does not say whether they reached a settlement with Scott or Sony.
Under Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a plaintiff can end a case without a court order as long as the defendants have not yet served an answer or a motion for summary judgment. According to the notice, the defendants had done neither.
Norman and Ordogne sued Scott, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Publishing, and others in federal court in New Orleans on January 25, 2024.
They claimed that Scott had used an uncleared sample of Bitches (Reply), a track the pair wrote and recorded in 1991.
The song appeared on DJ Jimi‘s 1992 album It’s Jimi.
The two Scott tracks at the center of the case were Stargazing, from his 2018 album Astroworld, and Til Further Notice, from 2023‘s Utopia.
Stargazing debuted at No.8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Til Further Notice entered the chart at No.38.
When MBW first reported on the case in February 2024, Stargazing had been streamed 709 million times on Spotify, and Til Further Notice nearly 93 million times.
The lawsuit alleged that the “alright, alright, alright” vocal heard at the start of Bitches (Reply) had its tone and pitch altered before being inserted into both of Scott‘s tracks.
The original complaint listed six timestamps at which it said the vocal appears in Til Further Notice and cited the 3:46 mark in Stargazing.
“Defendants admitted to the unauthorized use of ‘Bitches Reply’ to the Plaintiffs when it had a sample clearance vendor contact the Plaintiffs via e-mail about clearing the subject sample and interpolated use after the release of the Defendant Webster’s album, ‘Utopia,'” states the second amended complaint, filed in July 2024.
Jacques Webster II is Scott’s legal name.
Norman and Ordogne did not put a figure on the damages they were seeking.
Instead, they sought their actual losses, a share of the profits from both songs, or damages set by law under the US Copyright Act, plus punitive damages and legal fees.
The July 2024 complaint went further, asking the court for a permanent order prohibiting the “reproduction, distribution, sale, public performance or other use or exploitation” of Til Further Notice and Stargazing.
If granted, such an order could have stopped both songs from being sold or streamed on services such as Spotify and Apple Music.
Norman and Ordogne also asked to be credited on “any awards, accolades, events of prestige and/or other public recognition attributed to Til Further Notice and Stargazing.”
Lawyers for Scott and Sony asked the court to throw out the case in June 2024, arguing both that it had been brought in the wrong court and that the claims themselves failed.
On the merits, Scott‘s lawyers argued that “the single word ‘alright’ and the short phrase ‘alright, alright, alright’ lack even the ‘minimal creativity required for copyright protection’ both because these lyrics are too short and because they are commonplace, or stock, expressions.”
They further argued that the claims over the 2018 track Stargazing had been brought too late and questioned the pair’s copyright registrations.
The second amended complaint, filed six weeks after that motion, also widened the passage the pair said had been lifted. Rather than three “alrights,” it pointed to the opening of Bitches (Reply) from 0:01 to 0:16: nine “alrights” and the line that follows.
The defendants then renewed their bid to dismiss on personal jurisdiction and venue grounds. In December 2025, US District Judge Brandon S. Long denied it, but allowed them to raise those arguments again after limited discovery on jurisdiction.
Norman and Ordogne‘s original complaint described Bitches (Reply) as “the ultimate source of music sampling and interpolation in Rap/Hip Hop, and one of the more sampled and interpolated musical works in Rap/Hip Hop history.”
It listed 19 tracks that it said had sampled or interpolated the song, including Cardi B‘s Bickenhead, Kid Cudi‘s Girls, and Nelly‘s Tip Drill.
The second amended complaint later recast that list as songs covered by licensing agreements that credit Norman and Ordogne as writers, drawing on either Bitches (Reply) or Where They At, another song the pair wrote for DJ Jimi.
“Defendants Sony have also previously entered into sample licensing agreement with Plaintiffs to create derivative works,” the July 2024 complaint adds.
It cites Project Pat‘s Chickenhead, which it says sampled the same run of “alright” vocals, and Travis Porter‘s Ayy Ladies, which it says used other portions of Bitches (Reply). A third example, Beyoncé‘s Church Girl, interpolates Where They At, the complaint says.
The same filing says the pair are credited as writers on Modern Jam, another track from Scott‘s Utopia, and that the track interpolates lyrics from Where They At.
The lawsuit also named Metro Boomin and James Blake, both credited writers on Til Further Notice, as defendants.
The dismissal follows the end of another copyright case over a track from Scott‘s Utopia.
In June, singer-songwriter Victory Boyd voluntarily dismissed her lawsuit against Scott, SZA, and Future over Telekinesis.
Unlike Norman and Ordogne, Boyd dismissed her case with prejudice, under terms filed by both sides, so she cannot bring the same claims again.
In 2020, Scott was sued by a group of musicians who claimed that his US No.1 single Highest in the Room copied their song Cartier.
That case was dismissed in 2021 at the request of both parties.Music Business Worldwide
