EXCLUSIVE: It’s On – Nicki Minaj To Battle Tracy Chapman In Court In May 2020

(AllHipHop News) Tracy Chapman will finally have her day in court against Nicki Minaj next year.

A legal war between the two pop stars erupted after Nicki initially tried to get permission to sample Champman’s song called “Baby Can I Hold You.”

Nicki wanted to include the song on her album Queen but Chapman flatly denied the request, just weeks before the LP was released.

Nicki’s version, which was ironically titled “I’m Sorry” featuring Nas, ended up being leaked to popular New York DJ Funkmaster Flex, who premiered the unreleased record on his Twitter account.

The “Fast Car” singer filed a lawsuit against Nicki Minaj in October for copyright infringement, claiming she should be responsible for the leak. 

Nicki’s lawyers shot back and insisted the rapper, did nothing wrong, claiming the sample falls under the fair use category of copyright law.

The pair failed to settle, so last week, Tracy Chapman told the judge she needed more time to make her case because Nicki was stalling.

Tracy’s lawyers maintained Nicki Minaj was holding on to text messages allegedly sent to Funkmaster Flex, as well as other pertinent documents.

Nicki’s legal team cited a split with former manager Gee Roberson in April as one of the reasons for the delay.

Yesterday (October 18th) Judge Virginia Phillips shot down Tracy Chapman’s motion to delay the case until June of 2020 to gather more evidence.

A Pre-Trial Conference is set for May 18, 2020, at 2:30 p.m. and the trial will commence on May 26, 2020.