Fortnite Accused of Exploiting African-American Culture by Stealing Dance Moves for the Game

Rapper 2 Milly is suing Epic Games for allegedly using his Milly Rock Dance in their hit game, "Fortnite," and he claims the game has a habit of exploiting African-American culture.

According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Milly (real name Terrence Ferguson) claims he popularized the dance in 2014 in conjunction with the release of his song, "Milly Rock."

Ferguson claims that Epic Games "capitalized on the Milly Rock’s popularity" by selling the dance to players to use to customize their characters in the game.

"Although identical to the dance created, popularized, and demonstrated by Ferguson," he claims, "Epic did not credit Ferguson nor seek his consent to use, display, reproduce, sell, or create a derivative work based upon Ferguson’s Milly Rock dance or likeness."

Ferguson believes Epic "should not be able to profit from Ferguson’s fame and hard work by its intentional misappropriation of Ferguson’s original content or likeness."

The lawsuit goes in on the game and says they "consistently sought to exploit African-American talent in particular in Fortnite by copying their dances and movements." They claim Fortnite has copied the dance moves of Snoop Dogg from the video for "Drop It Like It’s Hot," Alfonso Ribeiro’s performance of his famous “Carlton” dance on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," a dance by Will Smith from the same show, and Donald Faison’s signature dance from the NBC television show "Scrubs."

They claim "Epic uses the Milly Rock, and other dances, to create the false impression that Epic started these dances and crazes or that the artist who created them is endorsing the game."

The rapper claims the game company has "made a fortune" using the Milly Rock Dance without his permission. He is suing for copyright infringement and seeking unspecified damages.

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