A poignant case was Vanilla Ice vs Queen and David Bowie and their track’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’ and ‘Under Pressure, respectively.
The 1981 Queen and Bowie collaboration hit was obviously sampled on the popular 1990 rap song.
However, Vanilla Ice – real name Robert Matthew Van Winkle – joked that the melodies for each song were unique in their own way
The hip-hop star was then threatened with a copyright infringement suit in 1990.
However, it was eventually settled outside of the courts, with Ice agreeing to pay out a sum of money and members of the British rock group – which included Brian May, Roger Taylor, Spike Edney and the late frontman Freddie Mercury – and the late ‘Starman’ hitmaker were given songwriting credits on the song.
Vanilla Ice vs Queen and David Bowie
