Rapper Sues Video Game Maker Over Fortnite Dance Move : NPR

2 Milly does his signature dance, the Milly Rock, while performing at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles in 2015.

Randy Shropshire/Getty Images

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Randy Shropshire/Getty Images

2 Milly does his signature dance, the Milly Rock, while performing at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles in 2015.

Randy Shropshire/Getty Images

A spin of the hand, and a flick of the arm. Bounce left, right, left, right.

That dance, known as the Milly Rock, is at the center of a lawsuit filed Wednesday by rapper 2 Milly against Epic Games, Inc. The suit claims the artist invented the move and that it was used without permission in the company’s massively popular online game Fortnite.

Let’s take a look at the evidence — here’s a clip from Fortnite of a dance they call Swipe It:

And here’s a video of 2 Milly’s Milly Rock from 2014 (which contains words and gestures that may be offensive):

In the complaint, lawyers for 2 Milly – whose legal name is Terrence Ferguson – write that through the “unauthorized misappropriation of Ferguson’s highly popular dance craze, the ‘Milly Rock,’ in its video game, Fortnite Battle Royale (‘Fortnite’), Epic has unfairly profited from exploiting Ferguson’s protected creative expression and likeness.”

2 Milly says he invented the Milly Rock in 2011. He featured it in his 2014 music video and since then the dance has taken off. It’s been performed onstage by other musicians, name-checked in a popular rap and taken up by enthusiastic young fans.

Fortnite is free to download and play, but gamers can spend real money to purchase costumes and other virtual additions to their digital avatars. And they do: Fornite has made Epic Games more than $1 billion dollars. Those add-ons include dance moves…