Kendrick Lamar, SZA's Black Panther music video All the Stars accused of stealing British-Liberian artist's work

Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s collaborative music video, ‘All the Stars’, has been accused of copyright infringement by British-Liberian artist Lina Iris Viktor for using her artwork without permission. The video, which came out last week , was part of the soundtrack for Marvel’s Black Panther, which is set to release this Friday. According to a report on The New York Times, Viktor has sent a letter through her lawyer, Christopher Robinson, alleging that the gold patterns seen in the music video have been lifted from her ‘Constellations’ series. [caption id=“attachment_4347069” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from All the Stars music video featuring Lina Iris Viktor’s artwork[/caption] The team behind All the Stars reportedly approached Viktor on two separate occasions to seek permission to feature her work but she had turned them down unsatisfied with the proposed terms of the agreement. But she was stunned to find that they had duplicated her work anyway. “Why would they do this? It’s an ethical issue, because what the whole film purports is that it’s about black empowerment, African excellence—that’s the whole concept of the story. And at the same time they’re stealing from African artists,” Viktor told The New York Times.

#AllTheStars video would be different wothout @LinaViktor's art cc @Stevensroyalty @djsaratadd pic.twitter.com/pJMNDAJEmX

— ElectropixTV (@calixte) February 10, 2018

While Viktor doesn’t care about being compensated, she does hope the makers offer a public apology acknowledging the unauthorised use of her work. “Cultural appropriation is something that continually happens to African-American artists, and I want to make a stand,” she added. The Black Panther soundtrack released on 9 February and the movie will hit theatres on 16 February.