Afeni Shakur sues Suge Knight/Tha Row

[Darksider]

The below article comes straight from 2PacZone.com:

The mother of slain rapper Tupac Shakur has gone to court to try to stop Death Row Records from releasing a new album of her son's recordings.
Afeni Shakur has asked a federal judge to ban the record label - and controversial hip hop mogul Marion (Suge) Knight - from issuing unreleased songs and remixes next month without her consent.

Death Row and its distributor also have cheated Afeni Shakur out of untold thousands in royalties from two other Tupac albums, she charges in a lawsuit filed this week in Brooklyn Federal Court.

"We have sent cease-and-desist letters to Death Row, which were totally ignored," her lawyer Donald David said.

Afeni Shakur, a former Black Panther, wants at least $500,000 in damages from Death Row Records and Long Island-based distributor Koch Entertainment.

Death Row Records, also known as The Row, is run by Knight, a 315-pound ex-con who was riding in the front seat of his BMW with Shakur when the rapper was shot to death in 1996 in Las Vegas.

Knight "is a convicted felon and has long had a reputation for being a hoodlum and unscrupulous business practices," the complaint states. Two weeks ago, cops raided his record headquarters in Beverly Hills, arresting three suspects on murder charges. Knight was not a target of the probe, officials said.

Calls to Death Row and Koch Entertainment were not returned.




another Tupac cd?

[_That_Cracka_J]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Suge Knight owned all of his artist master recordings, including 2Pac's.....So since 2Pac is dead, that doesn't give his mother ownership of the recordings, they are still Suge's right?

[yung-g]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Suge Knight owned all of his artist master recordings, including 2Pac's.....So since 2Pac is dead, that doesn't give his mother ownership of the recordings, they are still Suge's right?

my thoughtz exactly.

[TobyTizzle]

were have u been living?

Afeni owns 2Pacs estate...including his music, ALONG with Suge Knight (only for his Death Row catalogue). I think this is bullshit though, why havent we heard more about it? Theres no way Suge would release another Pac cd in a month, he doesnt have a distribution deal that could push it. The only reason Tha Row helped get 'Better Dayz' out is because Interscope was involved.

[_That_Cracka_J]

I thought it would basically be the same case as with Snoop, Daz, Nate Dogg and anybody else who has songs in Death Row's vault.  Suge Knight still releases songs from these guys clearly WITHOUT permisssion from them, because HE owns the masters.  What if Snoop or Daz died?  Does that mean Suge Knight has to get permission from their mothers or wives to release their recordings?  I don't think that the case with 2Pac should be any different.  

[Gangsta_T]

fuck that ho and fuck that big muthafucka


all those remixes of classic material sucks !!!

fuck em fo that !

GT

[Quadruple OG]

Knight "is a convicted felon and has long had a reputation for being a hoodlum and unscrupulous business practices," the complaint states. Two weeks ago, cops raided his record headquarters in Beverly Hills, arresting three suspects on murder charges. Knight was not a target of the probe, officials said.

funny they mention this, yet Afeni was a convicted felon as well, even giving birth to 2pac in jail.  For Afeni's sake, if she tries to use the ex-con arguement in court she'll lose the case pretty damn fast

[TobyTizzle]

I thought it would basically be the same case as with Snoop, Daz, Nate Dogg and anybody else who has songs in Death Row's vault.  Suge Knight still releases songs from these guys clearly WITHOUT permisssion from them, because HE owns the masters.  What if Snoop or Daz died?  Does that mean Suge Knight has to get permission from their mothers or wives to release their recordings?  I don't think that the case with 2Pac should be any different.  

Afeni took Suge Knight and Tha Row to court after Pac died though to gain legal rights to his music as she owns 2Pac's estate. So now, just as he cant release Dr.Dre's Death Row music (he brought the rights to it all when he left), he cant do what he wants with Pacs music. Im sure if Snoop died, someone close to him would take Suge to court and gain some legal rights to his unreleased catalogue aswell...

anyways, this album sounds like bullshit, OR the greatest thing that could happen to Pacs music in a while  

[Efrain]

Suge can't release Dre's stuff because his original contract had him signed for only one album, the Chronic. Not only that but none of that albums contents could be distributed in any other form. The Og Chronic 2000 with the three unreleased dre tracks and a bunch of songs from the Chronic were taken off because of that. Suge had no choice but to remove em.
As far as the other material that Dre just produced or had a hand in production im not really sure. Best bet is probably like what Amaru was saying about how before they release 2pac songs the very 1st thing then have to do is get something called a 'Producer Agreement' and if the original producer isn’t down with it, the track will never see the light of day in any form (i.e. remixing etc etc)
LoL, and u know suges still beating himself over that, that’s like having a 40 million dollar check your not allowed to cash.

[Trauma-san]

I believe tupac's case was special circumstances, most rappers wouldn't be able to do that, like Snoop if he died, his wife probably wouldn't win control like afeni did.  

Just guessing, I'd say maybe pac had unpaid bills, or their was some sort of foriegn citizenship for his mom involved, or something wacky like that that was a loophole allowing her to get control.  Or maybe it had to do with suge being in jail, and the estate couldn't settle because the value of the songs wasn't known, or something, who knows.