Robinhood has finally defeated rapper Ice Cube.
The legendary rapper accused the stock-trading app of misusing his likeness and lyrics in an email marketing campaign.
The “Friday” actor thought that using his image and a catchphrase from his 1992 hit song, “Check Yo Self,” featuring Das EFX, violated his publicity rights under California law.
But a San Francisco federal court dismissed his claim.
Reuters reports that the U.S. Magistrate, the Honorable Judge Laurel Beeler, said that the popular digital stock-exchange did not “jack” Ice Cube.
She noted that the N.W.A. founding member, whose real name is O’Shea Jackson, did not prove that the company tried to misrepresent their relationship with the artist by including the hook from “Check Yo Self” and a picture of him in its newsletter.
Beeler noted that to prove the “false-endorsement” claim, his team would have to do “more than alleged unauthorized use.”
In March, the company tried to spruce up their newsletter by including a picture of Cube and his lyrics from his legendary song.
Robinhood flipped the lyrics from “check yo self before you wreck yo self” to “correct yourself, before you wreck yourself” to convey financial literacy about stock corrections to their subscribers.
The rap star had an issue with the image that was used as well, which was a picture of Cube taken from the movie “Are We There Yet?”
According to Reuters, Jacqueline Ortiz Ramsay, a Robinhood spokesperson, said that her company believes that the judge made the correct decision.
The news outlet shared that the business will “always vigorously defend its reputation against false accusations of wrongdoing.”
Ice Cube’s attorney Michael Taitelman of Freedman + Taitelman said in an email, “The judge is wrong!”
“You cannot take people’s lyrics and likeness as an endorsement without permission.”
This decision marks the second time that the judge dismissed the lawsuit. However, this ruling is final.