Battle For Ownership Of Houston-Based Rap-A-Lot Records Begins...

[The "Untouchable" DJR]

Battle For Ownership Of Houston-Based Rap-A-Lot Records Begins
By Nolan Strong
Date: 10/10/2006 5:55 pm

A new battle is brewing in rap and this time it's between Rap-A-Lot/J. Prince Boxing CEO James Prince and incarcerated drug dealer Michael "Harry-O" Harris.

According to Harris' attorney Steve Goldberg, Harris has laid claim to a 50% stake in Rap-A-Lot Records, alleging that he provided seed money to launch the label in the mid-'80s, similar to claims Harris made against Marion "Suge" Knight's Death Row Records.

"He has a 50/50 oral agreement with James Prince and we are going to find out exactly how much money is owed," Goldberg told AllHipHop.com. "Of course we expect Prince to deny this, but there were witnesses to the oral agreement at the inception of Rap-A-Lot. Michael helped get Rap-A-Lot off the ground by booking acts and providing start-up capital. James Prince would be no place without Michael Harris. And just like he [Harris] won a judgment against Death Row, he will win against Rap-A-Lot."

Since it's founding in 1986, Rap-A-Lot has produced hit records for the Geto Boys, Scarface, Bun B and Pimp C, and the Luniz, among others.

Harris founded various entertainment-related ventures in the '80s, including the production of Denzel Washington's Broadway debut Checkmates in 1987.

Prince has been ordered by a Houston judge to produce documents relating to the assets of Michael or Lydia Harris, including but not limited to the assets of Rap-A-Lot Records.

Prince must appear in a Los Angeles court Thursday (Oct. 12) for continued deposition.

Goldberg said he seeks to start with finding links between Knight and Prince.

Of interest to Goldberg is a recent album 2Face, that consists of 2Pac and Scarface tracks released on Rap-A-Lot Records and co-produced by Knight.

"We found out that Prince was less than forthcoming in his first deposition," said Goldberg. "He denied Rap-A-Lot was doing business with Death Row, but we found out about the 2Face CD. Because of that, we showed the judge that Prince had not been totally candid in his first deposition. I'm going to keep questioning this guy until we get what we need."

In September, Prince celebrated a minor victory when questions regarding J. Prince and Suge Knight were initially thrown out.

"Harris is a pathological lying snitch," Prince said in September, adding that he was "pleased with the judge's decision on the court ruling" at the time.

Michael Harris is serving 28-years in San Quentin for attempted-murder and drug dealing.

He claimed he invested $1.5 million to help start Death Row Records in 1991 with Knight's attorney, David Kenner.

Knight filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid paying Harris' estranged wife Lydia a $107 million default judgment and Death Row was placed into the hands of a Bankruptcy trustee to auction off the labels assets, which include multi-platinum recordings from Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound and Tupac Shakur, the best-selling rapper in history.

"Nothing was dismissed," Goldberg clarified. "If Rap-A-Lot said anything was dismissed from court, that was a misstatement. Until Michael Harris gets what's owed to him, we are not letting go."

Attempts to reach J. Prince and Rap-A-Lot for comment were unsuccessful.

http://www.allhiphop.com/hiphopnews/?ID=6246

Figures, first Death Row now Rap-A-Lot... While everybody is partying and BS-ing they trying to take all the real muthafuckas out the game...

AmeriKKKa is proud of you Mike...

[Dubz]

"michael harris is a pathological snitch" - james prince

[Michael]

that harry-o is one greedy cunt...wtf like....has anyone actually heard of him setting up rap-a-lot??

[$Eg2$]

Yeah this Harry O dude is a straight hatin ass snitch ass nigga

[Quadruple OG]

"Harris is a pathological lying snitch,"

I think J. Prince just opened up a whole new genre of snitching with that one

[proverbs aka DD]

lol this shit is kinda funny.. i know alot of ya'll are butt-hurt b/c of this, but look at the 'trail' this is going in.

1. Harry-O sues Suge Knight for what is owed to him
2. Suge ignores Harry-O's claim and loses judgement by default
3. Suge files for bankruptcy to avoid paying Harry-O.. Everyone on the internet bodly claim that Suge Knight has money hidden and/or given the money to J Prince so it can't be 'touched' by Harry-O.
4. Harry-O files lawsuit against J Prince.

It seems like Harry-O is smart, he is suing the money trail. None of ya better take any money from Suge, cuz you'll get sued.

No offense DJR, this isn't a AmeriKKKa thing, this is just some ignorant ass black folks trying to take each other's money.  Also, Death Row and Rap-A-Lot has been out of the game for a few minutes now... I guess you gotta be in the game to be taken out of it.

[Dubz]

lol this shit is kinda funny.. i know alot of ya'll are butt-hurt b/c of this, but look at the 'trail' this is going in.

1. Harry-O sues Suge Knight for what is owed to him
2. Suge ignores Harry-O's claim and loses judgement by default
3. Suge files for bankruptcy to avoid paying Harry-O.. Everyone on the internet bodly claim that Suge Knight has money hidden and/or given the money to J Prince so it can't be 'touched' by Harry-O.
4. Harry-O files lawsuit against J Prince.

It seems like Harry-O is smart, he is suing the money trail. None of ya better take any money from Suge, cuz you'll get sued.

No offense DJR, this isn't a AmeriKKKa thing, this is just some ignorant ass black folks trying to take each other's money.  Also, Death Row and Rap-A-Lot has been out of the game for a few minutes now... I guess you gotta be in the game to be taken out of it.

rapalots out? shit, rapalots still in it. pimp c, trae, bun b to name a few releases from them this year.

[Darksider]

lol this shit is kinda funny.. i know alot of ya'll are butt-hurt b/c of this, but look at the 'trail' this is going in.

1. Harry-O sues Suge Knight for what is owed to him
2. Suge ignores Harry-O's claim and loses judgement by default
3. Suge files for bankruptcy to avoid paying Harry-O.. Everyone on the internet bodly claim that Suge Knight has money hidden and/or given the money to J Prince so it can't be 'touched' by Harry-O.
4. Harry-O files lawsuit against J Prince.

It seems like Harry-O is smart, he is suing the money trail. None of ya better take any money from Suge, cuz you'll get sued.

No offense DJR, this isn't a AmeriKKKa thing, this is just some ignorant ass black folks trying to take each other's money.  Also, Death Row and Rap-A-Lot has been out of the game for a few minutes now... I guess you gotta be in the game to be taken out of it.

this is not smart..this is usual lawsuit business ....do you think suges and princes lawyers are dumb??
suge can do business with whoever he wants.(and thats what he is doing right now..lol)..and harry-o cant stop him..this is more or less a publicity stunt..like when the harris lawyer said they will get suges master tapes..that was a straight lie

[The "Untouchable" DJR]

lol this shit is kinda funny.. i know alot of ya'll are butt-hurt b/c of this, but look at the 'trail' this is going in.

1. Harry-O sues Suge Knight for what is owed to him
2. Suge ignores Harry-O's claim and loses judgement by default
3. Suge files for bankruptcy to avoid paying Harry-O.. Everyone on the internet bodly claim that Suge Knight has money hidden and/or given the money to J Prince so it can't be 'touched' by Harry-O.
4. Harry-O files lawsuit against J Prince.

It seems like Harry-O is smart, he is suing the money trail. None of ya better take any money from Suge, cuz you'll get sued.

No offense DJR, this isn't a AmeriKKKa thing, this is just some ignorant ass black folks trying to take each other's money.  Also, Death Row and Rap-A-Lot has been out of the game for a few minutes now... I guess you gotta be in the game to be taken out of it.

You have to look at the bigger picture here... I'm pretty sure AmeriKKKa is watching this trial with a big smile on its face! The powers that be have been after Lil J and especially Suge for a long time without any mentionable succes, now they are finally able to "do something about it" all with the help of Mr. Harris. The goverment doesn't care about him and the money involved, they just want to take Suge down and seeing Lil J going down with him is a nice bonus for them...

Harris is cooperating with the authorities and I'm sure he's got their full cooperation also...

[ABN]

and Rap-A-Lot has been out of the game for a few minutes now... I guess you gotta be in the game to be taken out of it.

what the fuck are you alking about? J´s still one of the 5 richest moguls in the game due to his Boxing company(a promoter that got Roy and Floyd makes a lot of money). and Rap-A-Lot´s still putting out music, now they haven´t been very successfull if you judge everything by record sales and Bun put out their last gold album. but Rap-A-Lot´s been around for almost as long as Def Jam and they gonna be around for a lot longer coz J´s still making obscene amounts of money from boxing and royalties from the the 30 or so albums that RAL has put out that went gold or platinum. the only label in rap history that can fuck with RAL´s catalog is Def Jam. check this out
http://www.discogs.com/label/Rap-A-Lot+Records 
http://www.jr.com/JRSectionView.process?nsa=1&displayAll=1&Nao=0&JRSource=nsa&N=19610+4294920151&Ne=500

[ABN]

and if the feds been trying to get at Lil J for 20 years without any success then guess what? Harry-O aint gonna find out shit about shit, and if Larry puts out the word Harry better get his ass ready for PC. why yīall think people donīt want beef with RAL?

[proverbs aka DD]

and Rap-A-Lot has been out of the game for a few minutes now... I guess you gotta be in the game to be taken out of it.

what the fuck are you alking about? Jīs still one of the 5 richest moguls in the game due to his Boxing company(a promoter that got Roy and Floyd makes a lot of money). and Rap-A-Lotīs still putting out music, now they havenīt been very successfull if you judge everything by record sales and Bun put out their last gold album. but Rap-A-Lotīs been around for almost as long as Def Jam and they gonna be around for a lot longer coz Jīs still making obscene amounts of money from boxing and royalties from the the 30 or so albums that RAL has put out that went gold or platinum. the only label in rap history that can fuck with RALīs catalog is Def Jam. check this out
http://www.discogs.com/label/Rap-A-Lot+Records 
http://www.jr.com/JRSectionView.process?nsa=1&displayAll=1&Nao=0&JRSource=nsa&N=19610+4294920151&Ne=500

lol.. i don't care about the 5 richest moguls.nor am i talking about j's outside ventures. blah blah blah. i'm talkin about making noise homie.

i'm talking about control of this rap game.. rap-a-lot doesnt even got control of houston anymore, just like death row doesnt got control of LA.. and i'm speaking from experience, i have homes in BOTH cities. Right now, i'm in Houston..  Next month, i'll be back in LA. (and nahh.. i aint got nothing to do with Harry-O).. Much respect to DJR (whom i've 'discussed' with many times), but i don't agree with him b/c i dont think RAL and DR are influencial as they were 5-10 years ago.

See. I hate arguing with Death Row/Rap A Lot fans b/c they always side-step the rap game and mention outside ventures and/or the CEO's personal fortunes. I don't care about their personal bank accounts..

"How come death row hasnt put out an album" - "Death Row is on top man... didnt you see Suge choking that bitch at the club"

"Who distrubutes Death Row's material now that Koch filed in the bankruptcy suit?" - "It doesnt matter man, Lakey the kid is coming out with an album and Suge got his money hidden.. he's rich!"

"RAL doesn't got control of this rap game anymore, Scarface quits, Bun B did aiight, Pimp C flopped.." - "It doesn't matter man, J Prince makes millions of dollars"

lol.

[ABN]

^well it´s pretty obvious that RAL´s not as big on the national or regional scene as they once were but guess what? when all these corny motherfuckers(Mike Jones,Slim,Cham etc etc)are long gone Rap-A-Lot is still gonna be around putting out banging music. and J´s still making millions of the record sales coz he got a straight up distribution deal with Asylum just like Suge had with Interscope and they never use big time producers so they don´t have to recoupe as much money. and what J got goin on outside of music is extremely relevant coz that means that he can stay putting out whatever he feels like without having to worry about if the shit is gonna sell or not. and indirectly RAL´s still the biggest thing in Houston coz J gets points off of Swisha House sales coz he fronted them the extra millions that Asylum didn´t wanna pay them for their distribution deal.

[Quadruple OG]

The thing is that J. Prince is the anti-Suge when it comes to publicity.  Suge loves the spotlight and being in the news.  People will anounce publicly that they are cool with Suge (one incident comes to mind when Nelly randomly shouted-out Suge a few years ago at a concert).  With J. Prince, he is respected by everyone in Houston that's involved with rap.  He doesn't need 100 artists to say "J. Prince is the realest cat, j. prince is the don of Houston".  Don't believe everything you see, J. Prince has pretty big grasp on the Houston music scene, a lot bigger than many people assume.

And Rap-A-Lot's catalogue is up there with Death Row's.

[MontrealCity's Most]

Rap-a-lot is the equivalent to death row south right just more longevity. Also i always thought these dude/s at ra-a-lot were g'd up