On Wednesday (7.10,) the Beastie Boys filed a lawsuit alleging that the Chili’s restaurant chain’s parent company Brinker International used the rap groups classic 1994 song “Sabotage” to promote its eatery business without permission.
Filed in New York federal court, the Beastie Boys law suit claims that Brinker began unlawfully using “Sabotage” to promote Chili’s in social media advertisements starting around November 2022. In addition to using the song without permission, the complaint states, one of the restaurant ads also used was resemblant of the song’s famed Spike Jonez-directed music video, complete with “three characters wearing obvious 70s-style wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses who were intended to evoke the three members of Beastie Boys.”
“Use of the ‘Sabotage’ sound recording, music composition and video was all without permission.” “The plaintiffs do not license ‘Sabotage’ or any of their other intellectual property for third-party product advertising purposes, and deceased Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch included a provision in his will prohibiting such uses” read the suit. Seeking monetary damages of at least $150,000, the iconic rap group officially sued Blinker for copyright infringement.
As the group stated in its suit, Adam Yauch’s will included a provision to prohibit the use of his music in advertisements. Not the first time the Beastie Boys have sued a major brand over unauthorized music use in 2015 the band won a $1,700,000 million verdict against the Monster energy drink company for using several of the group’s songs in a promotional video. That same year, Beastie Boys reached an undisclosed settlement with toy company GoldieBlox over the use of their song “Girls.”
With three of their LPs featured in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, the Beastie Boys are one of the most celebrated hip hop groups of all time.
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: Michael Morel