Rick James Estate Sues Music Publisher

[Damien J.]

Nobody messes with Rick James, bitch, even after his death.

The estate of the late "Super Freak" singer has sued his former music publisher, claiming the company signed agreements with European partners to publish James' profitable catalog even after being notified that its contract was not being renewed.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Brooklyn Music Publishing of earning substantial royalties from those European publishers and not paying his estate its proper due, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which obtained a copy of the suit.

Though Brooklyn once had publishing rights to James' catalogue, that did not include his biggest hit, "Super Freak," the plaintiffs' attorney, Lawrence Iser, told the Reporter.

Court papers allege that the firm failed to fork over business documents pertaining to copyright authorship of the crooner's tunes, as well as actual master recordings rightfully belonging to James' trust and Wixen Music Publishing, the new publisher tasked with supervising the publishing of the singer's work following his untimely passing in 2004 at age 56.

"These intentional acts of misconduct and conversion, wholly unauthorized by the trust, have greatly interfered with the contractual relationship between the trust and Wixen, and have made it difficult, impractical and, in certain instances, impossible for Wixen to administer the compositions and to collect revenue derived therefrom," read the suit.

According to the legal documents, the late funk legend's trust (known as the James Ambrose Johnson Jr. 1999 Trust in accordance with his real name) became dissatisfied with Brooklyn Music's control over the commercial exploitation of his vast history of hits, due to the company's excessive costs.

After Brooklyn was informed that its services would not be renewed, James' trustees allege that the publisher decided to hit back by refusing to cough up vital copyright documents to its successor, Wixen, not to mention additional revenue it collected from the deals it sealed with subpublishers across the pond without the estate's permission.

The suit seeks unspecified damages, including exemplary and punitive damages and a court order barring Brooklyn from impeding on the future publishing of the R&B star's songs.

Brooklyn Music's lawyer, Vincent Chieffo, was unavailable for comment.

While James may be gone, his legacy lives on. Among the upcoming projects his estate has in the pipeline are his autobiography, Memoirs of a Superfreak, arriving in bookstores on Apr. 15; a possible biopic being written by The Longest Yard scribe Sheldon Turner; and a yet to be titled album of new funk tunes the entertainer was working on before he died, the first single of which, "Deeper Still," is already out to radio stations.

This report is provided by E! Online