Here’s something that Ludacris might find himself sweating over.
The “Chicken-n-Beer” rapper, real name Christopher Bridges, has been slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit claiming that he jacked someone else’s artwork involving “boob sweat” to promote his recent single “Vitamin D.”
In the suit, filed Thursday in federal court in New York, the LittleThings company says it published an article titled “Is Boob Sweat Normal? 8 Things Women Should Know About Sweating ‘Under There’” in March.
According to the complaint, the article included a “cartoon drawing of a woman with her left arm stretched across her body under her rib cage, and a deodorant stick in her right hand.”
LittleThings alleges that, in May, Ludacris published an “essentially identical” version of the cartoon, with the overlaid text “It’s That Time of the Year” on his Instagram account, next to a link leading to a website promoting the “Vitamin D” single and video.
According to the suit, Ludacris’ Instagram post has received more than 22,000 “likes” since it was published, and the rapper has derived “significant economic value from” the fact that the URL appeared next to the artwork.
Alleging copyright infringement, trademark infringement and other counts, the suit is seeking unspecified damages.
TheWrap has reached out to Ludacris’ publicist for comment.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.