When “Like That” dropped last March, it did more than throw shots — it detonated a rap beef that immediately had the timeline on fire. But Drake isn’t the only person Future, Metro Boomin, and K. Dot’s banger upset. Over a year later, the track is knee-deep in lawsuits, old-school grievances, and Grammy snubs.
In October 2024, Barry White’s estate filed a copyright infringement lawsuit over the song’s use of “Everlasting Bass,” the 1986 track by Rodney-O & Joe Cooley that’s heavily sampled in “Like That.” The estate claims it lifts key elements from White’s 1973 hit “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby.”
So why now? According to the lawsuit, the original track dropped long before the internet made everything searchable, and they weren’t aware of it until recently. Basically: four decades later, Barry White’s estate pulled up like, “Wait a minute…”
While that case is still simmering, Rodney-O decided he’s had enough — and now he’s throwing his own legal haymaker.
Rodney-O is ready to fight back
In a complaint filed on May 7, the rapper is suing K. Dot, Future, and Metro for unpaid royalties. He claimed that Epic Records reached out to him a week before the track dropped, but the version he heard only had Future on it, and that only Future and Metro’s teams were allowed to hear the K. Dot version.
“I didn’t even know Kendrick was on it until a day before when somebody called and said, ‘I heard Kendrick is on that record..And I said, ‘No I have the record. He’s not on there and the song was like two minutes,” he said in an interview with TMZ.
As the man who actually owns ‘Everlasting Bass,” Rodney-O figured he might, you know, be allowed to hear the whole song before the world did — and maybe even approve the sample. But nope. Now he’s also mad that while “Like That” snagged Grammy nominations for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance, he wasn’t even mentioned in the footnotes.
“So, to come to me, take my record, make all this money, out on tour, do this and that and act like we’re not a part of it? Even left me off the Grammy nominations. How can you do that? No respect at all and that’s how a lot of old school artists get treated […] At a time when I should be celebrating, I don’t even want to hear the record,” he said.
And guess what? Rodney-O also has something to say to Barry White’s estate. He filed a complaint right back, calling their lawsuit a “cash grab” and pointing out that “Everlasting Bass” has been out here for 35 years with zero problems until now. “We don’t know where this came from,” he said. (Cue the Law & Order gavel.)
Meanwhile, “Like That” is still living rent-free on playlists, TikToks, and DJs’ laptops all while leaving a trail of lawsuits, bruised egos, and unanswered DMs. Everyone wants their credit. Everyone wants their check — and apparently, no one’s getting either without a fight.
