A Black Panther lawsuit is testing the cultural exchange between Africans and African-Americans

Just days after Kendrick Lamar released the song “All The Stars,” British-Liberian artist Lina Iris Viktor filed a lawsuit (pdf) which alleges that the rapper conducted “willful brazen, and extensive unlawful” copying of her artwork for the music video. She’s also suing others that participated in the production, such as singer SZA (real name Solana Imani Rowe), the music video’s director Dave Meyers, and Top Dawg Entertainment.

In a response filed on May 18, Lamar and his fellow defendants argue that “alleged use of the artwork did not proximately cause any of Plaintiff’s alleged damages,” or any profits for Top Dawg entertainment. They added that any of the “alleged infringements were innocent,” and constituted as “fair use.” Both have asked the New York district court for a trial by jury.

The case doesn’t just bring up questions over what constitutes creative theft—it highlights the skewed relationship between African-American artists and their African counterparts, even when they’re working toward the same vision.

To create the ideal of Wakanda, the film’s director and designers referenced contemporary Africa, but sowed together a patchwork of pan-African elements, which were taken from various communities with no real reference to their origins. Viktor’s claim is that she can clearly recognize her own designs among this cultural mish-mash, at least in the music video.

In a side-by-side comparison submitted to the court, Viktor claimed the “infringing video” copied her “stylized motifs of mythical animals, gilded geometric forms on a black background, and distinctively textured areas and patterns, arrayed in a grid-like arrangement of forms.”

To support her claim that the defendants were acutely aware of her art, she says she was twice approached by representatives of Marvel for use of her work, but declined after they couldn’t reach an amicable agreement around payment and use. Represented by the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Seattle, Viktor’s distinctive works of gold-leaf on black and blue and backgrounds have been exhibited in New York, London, Atlanta, and Johannesburg.