Artist News Business News Legal

50 Cent sample case dismissed by US court

By | Published on Friday 18 November 2016

50 Cent

A US court has dismissed a lawsuit launched earlier this year over a sample in 50 Cent’s 2003 track ‘PIMP’.

Producer Brandon Parrott sued 50 Cent and pretty much everyone involved in the 2003 record, basically claiming that he was tricked into licensing the use of a beat from his track ‘BAMBA’ that appeared in the Universal-released hit.

The story went that he had sent ‘BAMBA’ and other tracks to Dr Dre’s Universal imprint Aftermath two years before the 50 Cent record came out. Parrot claimed that in 2003, after the rapper’s debut album ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ had been released, the label then got in touch to say it had put out the track containing his sample without licence by mistake. A deal was then done to cover the sample.

But Parrott subsequently reckoned that the label’s ‘honest mistake’ story wasn’t true, and that he had been duped into signing a less favourable deal. On that basis he sued in June this year for compensation.

Universal then requested that the case be dismissed in September on the grounds that an earlier settlement with Parrott over the sample barred him for pursuing legal action, and that the claimant had “not pled a single factual allegation” that proved that he had, in fact, been ripped off by Aftermath.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the judge hearing the case has now agreed with the major’s arguments, stating that Parrott’s “fraud claim was not only time-barred but also deeply flawed – failing on the justifiable reliance standard that is necessary to prevail”. As a result, judge S James Otero dismissed the complaint without leave to amend.



READ MORE ABOUT: |