More Hip-Hop Litigation

A court has decided that Def Jam owes $132,000,000.00 to TVT, the label where Ja Rule made his debut on a Mic Geronimo single, and later got signed along with his group the Cash Money Click. $108 million seems like a lot of damn money for punitive damages, I wouldn't be surprised if that changes on appeal:

$132M awarded in Ja Rule dispute

A small independent record company won a $132 million US verdict against industry heavyweight Island Def Jam Music Group and its top executive on Tuesday in a dispute over an unreleased record by rapper Ja Rule.

The verdict in the penalty phase of the trial provides roughly $24 million in compensatory damages and $108 million in punitive damages to New York-based TVT Records. Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, started his career with TVT in 1993 and moved to Island Def Jam with president Steve Gottlieb's blessing five years later, TVT lawyer Peter Haviland said.

In spring 2001, Ja Rule and two friends tried to make an album for TVT that included early Ja Rule recordings, but Def Jam's parent record company Universal Music Group blocked its completion, the lawyer said.

Haviland said Gottlieb was "left in ruins" when he could not release the album he was counting on...

And Dr. Dre also took a loss in this case involving the sample used for "Let's Get High". My question here is how much of that $1.5 million will ever make its way to the actual members of Fatback? I hope the answer is not zero, but I have a funny feeling..

U.K. Label May Get $1.5M From Dr. Dre

A federal jury has recommended a $1.5 million award to a British record company that sued rapper-producer Dr. Dre for song plagiarism, attorneys for both sides said.

U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall has yet to sign the judgment, Dre's attorney Howard King said Tuesday. A recorded telephone message left after business hours for King to elaborate on the award wasn't returned.

London-based Minder Music Ltd., sued Dre in 2000, claiming his 1999 song, "Let's Get High," used the bass line of Minder Music group Fatback's 1980 song, "Backstrokin," said Minder Music attorney Alan Dowling.

That second link also has info on the lawsuit filed against 50 Cent by the surgeon who treated him after his shooting. As many times as 50 refers to the shooting in his rhymes and press appearances, that surgeon should be getting a percentage of his sales.