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Some festive feuding and a seasonal suit from 50 Cent

By | Published on Monday 28 December 2015

50 Cent

50 Cent got into the full festive spirit last week by providing his favourite feuding partner Rick Ross with a brand new lawsuit, and just in time for Christmas.

Fiddy filed legal papers against Ross on 23 Dec over a mixtape the latter released at the end of last month to promote his new album ‘Black Market’. The ‘#RenzelRemixes’ mixtape included Ross rapping over 50 Cent’s 2003 hit ‘In Da Club’.

Promotional mixtapes in the hop hop community routinely make use of music without permission, of course, and often those whose music is sampled turn a blind eye unless the mixtape is distributed for profit. But in this case legal reps for 50 Cent say that, by using their client’s track without permission, Ross has breached his rap rival’s rights.

Paul LiCalsi of law firm Robins Kaplan LLP, which is representing Fiddy, told Billboard: “50 Cent’s most valuable asset is the name and reputation he has painstakingly built through his Grammy-winning music, acting and business endeavours. He chooses his projects carefully for the very purpose of protecting that name and reputation. Our complaint alleges that Rick Ross has taken these without permission to advertise his own album, and violated 50 Cent’s rights in the process, and we believe he should be held liable”.

The two rappers have long feuded, of course, and earlier this year 50 Cent was ordered to pay $7 million to Lastonia Leviston, who has a child with Ross, at the conclusion of a legal case related to that feud.

Back in 2010, Fiddy had posted a sex tape featuring Leviston online, seemingly in order to anger Ross. When the legal case stemming from the video leak finally reached its conclusion earlier this year, 50 Cent filed for bankruptcy protection, allegedly in a bid to avoid paying additional damages to Leviston.

Probably alluding to Fiddy’s new legal action, Ross tweeted on Christmas Eve: “Enjoy every minute of it” and then “They file lawsuits to settle for conversations” before concluding “I pray you live rich forever”.

We await to see if and how this particular dispute proceeds.



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