Kendrick Lamar's 'Alright' music video lawsuit: Everything to know as Connecticut school settles case for $100K

In a landmark settlement, a Connecticut school district has approved to pay $100,000 to resolve a lawsuit over the unauthorized use of footage in Kendrick Lamar's music video for his acclaimed song Alright.

According to Hip Hop DX News, on June 4, 2024, the town council members in Vernon, Connecticut, collectively agreed to offer remuneration to cover the losses associated with the lawsuit case from two years ago.

The lawsuit involved Kendrick Lamar's 2015 hit track from the To Pimp A Butterfly album. Reportedly, in 2020, a social studies teacher at Vernon Center Middle School showed eighth-grade students a documentary named Hip Hop: Songs That Shook America that featured K. Dot's track.

As per Hip Hop DX, the lawsuit was filed in 2022 by unknown authorities for the alleged use of a video that contained some heavy visuals and lyrics against police officers, which disrupted one of the students, who was the son of a police officer.

Hip Hop: Songs That Shook America is a 2019 documentary TV series that explores the evolution of American hip-hop music and culture.

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Kendrick Lamar's Alright video lawsuit concludes with $100K settlement to school

The dispute originated in 2020, years after the release of Kendrick Lamar's powerful and visually striking music video for Alright, a song from his Grammy-winning album To Pimp a Butterfly.

The video, which allegedly addresses themes of racial injustice and resilience, features a segment filmed on the campus of a Connecticut high school without prior consent from the school administration.

According to a lawsuit filed in 2022, an unnamed social studies teacher who screened a documentary featuring Kendrick Lamar's track highlighting police brutality and racism to eighth-grade students was aware that one of their students was the son of a law enforcement official.

The lawsuit alleged that the video portrayed police officers as "murderers" and included numerous violent scenes.

"The video depicted officers as murderers and contained other shockingly violent scenes and controversial statements about police officers," the lawsuit reads.

Kendrick Lamar, the acclaimed rapper (Image via Getty)

Allegedly, the most contentious clip was the concluding segment of the full version of Alright, in which a character depicted as a police officer makes a finger gun gesture and shoots at Kendrick Lamar, who is shown standing atop a light pole. This black-and-white scene concludes with blood appearing as Lamar falls from the fixture.

Moreover, the trigging lyrics from the track read below, in which the rapper suggested that "po-po," an urban American slang for police, wants to kill them on the street —

"Wouldn't you know / We been hurt, been down before / N*gga, when our pride was low / Lookin' at the world like, "Where do we go?" / N*gga, and we hate po-po / Wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho'," Kendrick Lamar rapped.

As per the lawsuit, the teacher knew that the student was diagnosed with a learning disorder and had an individualized education plan. As a result, the student sustained emotional and psychological injuries and distress.

According to the New Haven Register, the lawsuit further stated that the student was allegedly stigmatized for being the son of a police officer. As a result, he was disconnected from his friends. Moreover, the parents claimed they were forced to pay tuition fees and move the child to another school.

"Some or all of the aforementioned injuries necessitated (the student) change schools, as a result of which he has suffered loss and damages," the lawsuit read.

Kendrick Lamar, the Grammy-Award winner (Image via Getty)

Town Council members settled the lawsuit on Tuesday in the presence of Superintendent Joseph Macary, as per the New Haven Register.

Macary suggested that this lawsuit settlement money be awarded to the child's parents, who suffered damage because the family had to pay tuition costs after the student was transferred to another school. The superintendent suggested that the authorities do what is in the best "interest" of the children.

"We always do what's in the best interest of students, and each student is different, so each decision is different, but it's always what's best for the kids," Macary noted.

According to the teacher, the assignment required students to watch the documentary in the presence of their parents and with their permission. Furthermore, as per the publication, the teacher received a verbal warning and was advised to obtain approval from the administration or the respective department before showing any visual content to students.

According to the New Haven Register, the Board of Education will finalize the settlement at their next meeting on Monday, June 10, 2024.