Rapper Trefuego used an unlicensed sample in his TikTok hit 90mh. Now the court is making him pay over $800,000 in damages to Sony Music.

Sony Music’s lawsuit accused Trefuego, within 90mh, of “the flagrant and deliberate infringement” of both the sound recording and underlying composition in the 1986 track Reflections, released by Japanese composer Toshifumi Hinata (Hinata). (Sony Music Entertainment owns copyrights in the sound recording, while Sony Music Publishing’s copyrights cover the composition).

As we explained in our report at the time, the track went viral on TikTok and YouTube and racked up over 170 million Spotify streams. As we noted then, Sony had a strong case: It’s hard to mistake a sped-up key violin motif from Hinata’s track appearing, looped repeatedly, in 90mh.

The outcome of the case has now been decided, and, according to the court, Trefuego has to pay up.