Chris Brown’s Copyright Accusers Drop Case Over ‘No Guidance’

A pair of songwriters who sued Chris Brown and Drake for copyright infringement over Brown’s 2019 single “No Guidance” have now agreed to drop the case.

Five months after Braindon Cooper and Timothy Valentine agreed to drop Drake from the lawsuit, the pair filed a joint motion with Brown’s attorneys Thursday (Sept. 8) seeking to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety. Neither side immediately returned requests for comment, and no terms of the apparent settlement were made public.

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“No Guidance,” released on June 8, 2019, off Brown’s ninth studio album, Indigo, spent 46 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 5 in October 2019. The song, on which Drake was featured, was also nominated for best R&B song at the 62nd Grammy Awards.

In their October lawsuit, Cooper and Valentine claimed “No Guidance” ripped off their 2016 track “I Love Your Dress.” Among other alleged similarities, the accusers pointed to the fact that each song featured the phrase “you got it” in the lyrical hook.

In January, Brown and Drake asked the judge to dismiss what they called a “baseless” case. Among other things, they argued there was no evidence they had ever even heard Cooper and Valentine’s “obscure” song – a crucial part of proving copyright infringement. The two plaintiffs then fired back in February, arguing that Brown and Drake were basically claiming they were too famous to be sued by nobodies.

“This argument – essentially that defendants are somehow immune from copyright infringement claims by individuals who are not as famous as they are – is both egotistical and without any legal basis whatsoever,” the two wrote at the time. “Undoubtedly, regardless of their fame and status, defendants may be, and should be, held accountable for their infringement.”

On April 26, Cooper and Valentine moved to voluntarily dismiss the claims against Drake, leaving only Brown and various companies involved in the song, including Sony Music Entertainment. In Thursday’s filing, the claims against those defendants were also dropped: “the above-captioned action and all claims asserted therein are hereby dismissed with prejudice.”