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Business News Legal
Dr Dre sues Death Row
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 15 February 2010
Dr Dre has launched a lawsuit against Death Row Records, which, as much previously reported, was acquired by entertainment company WIDEawake last year, claiming that he is owed royalties by the company.
In legal documents filed last Thursday, he claims that he has received no payments from the company since 1996 (ie since its Suge Knight days), and that since the label’s rebirth last year it has released a collectors’ edition of his 1992 album ‘The Chronic’ and a greatest hits package without his consent. In one of the best pop courts quotes of all time, lawyer Howard King told a judge at the Los Angeles Federal Court on Thursday: “When it came to paying artist royalties and honouring limits on Dr Dre recordings that could be released, the ‘new’ Death Row Records, to quote our client, ‘forgot about Dre’. This lawsuit will make sure they remember”.
I’d rule in Dre’s favour just for that use of his lyrics, but apparently the whole thing still has to go through the normal legal process. The hip hop star is seeking unspecified damages for breach of contract, false advertising and trademark infringement.
As previously reported, these aren’t the first legal problems experienced by the revamped Death Row. The music lawyer who oversaw WIDEawake’s acquisition of the label after its original bankruptcy, Lara Lavi, is in legal dispute with her financial backers over the running of the company.
