Credit: Milla Cochran/startraksphoto
Erika Jayne is being accused of stealing a song from the ’80s duo L’Trimm.
As the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star continues to face a mountain of legal drama, including lawsuits and bankruptcy cases against her estranged husband, Thomas Girardi, and his law firm, hip hop stars Tigra and Bunny are accusing her of “ripping off” their 1998 song, “Cars That Go Boom,” and “never paying them a penny.”
In an interview with The Sun on August 11, L’Trimm’s Tigra and Bunny D said when they came across Erika’s song “Cars,” they were shocked by the similarities.
In Erika’s song, she sings, “I like the cars, the cars that go boom,” while L’Trimm’s song includes the lyrics, “We like the cars, the cars that go boom.”
Here’s Erika’s song:
And here’s L’Trimm’s:
“It’s the exact same hook!” Tigra alleged. “And Erika never reached out to either of us, and we haven’t seen a penny for it, of course. The least Erika could do is say, ‘Okay, I was inspired by it.’ But to add insult to injury you jack it and pretend that you made it up, like we never existed.”
“The craziest thing I really can’t wrap my head around is that it’s not an obscure song, it’s such a well-known song that it’s kind of a part of the fabric of hip hop,” she added of the track, which landed on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs Of All Time and VH1’s list of 100 Greatest Songs.
“How privileged can you possibly be that you don’t think that people will recognize that you didn’t make that up? Or, that we’d never find out? There’s kind of a reckoning, in this time in history with creators of color, Erika should have said ‘Hey, this is their music,'” Tigra continued.
Tigra first learned of Erika’s song in 2020 after fans online tagged her and said she and Bunny should demand recognition. Meanwhile, when Bunny heard the song, she was absolutely “livid.”
“It was blatantly robbed, and to not reference L’Trimm was shady,” Bunny said. “I was actually an Erika fan, and that’s why I’m kind of brokenhearted. I was rooting for her, I saw when she was going through the divorce, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh, my heart is breaking for her. I saw she was getting sued. I was like, ‘God bless her heart,’ you know, and then I find this out.”
“It’s heartbreaking that people just don’t think about other people. And women like Erika don’t think about other women, more importantly, because we’re the underdogs. I think it’s like a double hitter,” she continued. “Women aren’t respected in the music business as it is, and we are minorities. And people are going to think that is really her song.”
Tigra said she and Bunny wrote “Cars That Go Boom” when they were 15 and 16-years-old and noted that they no longer own the masters.
“I’m not even sure that we can pursue legal action,” Tigra admitted. “It’s just more of like, it’s straight swagger-jacking. I have reached out to see if anyone would want to pick it up pro bono, but so far we’ve been told since we don’t have the original contracts, it’s basically he says/she says.”
Although Tigra and Bunny may not be able to do anything about the alleged “rip-off,” Tigra did say she hopes to help the ongoing cases against her and Thomas.
“She’s got all this press on her for stealing and the documentary and all of it is coming together. Seeing what these survivors are going through, you know, somebody’s got to stop these people. I’m happy to be able to contribute to putting a stop to it,” she confirmed.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 11 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
