Jazz star Esperanza Spalding is facing legal action over the cover art for her latest album.
The musician, who famously beat Justin Bieber to win the Best New Artist Grammy in 2011, has been hit with a $500,000 lawsuit from photographer Kevin Ryan, who claims he never received any credit for images featured on the cover of last year’s “Radio Music Society,” which this month earned Spalding a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
The artwork features Spalding perched atop an ’80s-style boombox, which was actually just a wooden box with pictures reportedly taken by Ryan stuck to the front.
Spalding spotted the creative work at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn after Ryan’s sculptor friend Ryan Humphrey attached his friend’s images to the box and put it on display, according to the New York Post.
Ryan alleges the singer’s representatives ignored his request to be given credit for the piece, which has since been recreated as a stage prop for Spalding and used on fan merchandise. He’s suing for compensation.
via EurWeb
