Judge refuses to dismiss Travis Scott, Future and SZA lawsuit
A judge has denied Travis Scott, Future, and SZA after attempting to dismiss a lawsuit over their collaboration.
The trio were sued over their Utopia song, ‘Telekinesis’, in 2025, with Victory Boyd alleging she never permitted Scott to adapt her demo, ‘Like the Way It Sounds’.
According to Billboard, a New York federal judge wrote on March 9th that they “have come nowhere near shouldering their burden” for dismissal.
The initial copyright infringement lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court in January 2025, claimed that ‘Telekinesis’ was recorded and released without her permission.
Boyd says that Scott started creating the allegedly infringed work in Wyoming after her song was left in Kanye West’s studio.
The judge wrote, “Indeed, it is difficult to see how the moving defendants could have shouldered that burden at this stage of the litigation.”
He continued, “There exist almost no factual indicia in the record before the court with respect to the collaborative relationship between her and Ye – the very relationship that the moving defendants assert entitles them to dismissal of plaintiffs’ claims.”
Boyd alleges she shared her song with Kanye, with the rapper recording a version of the track called ‘Ultrasounds’ alongside Scott. Despite never being released, she says the song appeared on SoundCloud years later, with the final version ending up being ‘Telekinesis’.
Scott, Future, and SZA’s lawyer claims Boyd only wrote the lyrics for ‘Like the Way It Sounds’ and that Ye came up with the chords, beat and melody.
‘Telekinesis’ was released as part of Scott’s 2023 album. It was produced by Kanye, BoogzDaBeast, Jahaan Sweet and Hudson Mohawke, reaching number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100.