Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Travis Scott’s lawyer calls lawsuit over unofficial compilation artwork ‘frivolous and baseless’

Album, which was uploaded to streaming services, was not an official release

Louis Chilton
Thursday 13 January 2022 08:41 GMT
Travis Scott gives first interview since Astroworld tragedy

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A legal representative for Travis Scott has disputed a legal filing by a French artist surrounding the cover artwork for the 2015 compilation Travis La Flame.

As was pointed out by the rapper’s attorney, the album, which can be found on streaming service Tidal and features tracks from his mixtape Days Before Rodeo, was not officially released by the artist.

Instead, the compilation, which has been removed from various other streaming services, is said to be a fan-made release.

The lawsuit in question concerns artist Mickaël Mehala, whose artwork depicting Scott as a centaur was allegedly sent to Scott via Instagram in 2015.

Per the initial report in TMZ, Mehala has stated he “never heard back” from Scott, and is seeking “hundreds of thousands of dollars” through the French courts after noticing the painting’s use.

In a statement provided to various media outlets, Scott’s lawyer said: “This is clearly a frivolous and baseless filing. Anyone with access to the internet can tell you that Travis never released an album named La Flame.

“The illustration in question was fan-made, and was uploaded to streaming services by those fans, something that any user has the option of doing. Streaming services quickly removed it after they realised that certain people were trying to pass this off as a legitimate album cover. We look forward to responding to this case and obtaining a quick dismissal.”

Scott is also currently facing multiple lawsuits related to the tragedy at the Astroworld music festival last year.

The artist has denied liability for the incident, in which a crowd crush led to the death of 10 people, injuring many more.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in