This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: Mary J. Blige’s 1992 “Real Love” draws a new copyright case over an oft-sampled funk song with a long history in both hip hop and music law; Madonna strikes back against angry fans who sued over delayed concerts; Morgan Wallen is charged with multiple felonies after allegedly throwing a chair from the roof of a Nashville bar; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Sampling Saga
If you’ve listened to any significant amount of rap music over the past 30 years, you’ve probably heard “Impeach the President” by the Honey Drippers — a legendary piece of hip-hop source material with a drum track that’s been sampled or interpolated literally hundreds of times, including by Run-DMC, Biggie, Tupac, Dr. Dre and many others.
And, allegedly, by Mary J. Blige.
In a lawsuit filed last week, Tuff City Records claimed that Blige’s 1992 classic “Real Love,” which spent 31 weeks on the Hot 100 in 1992, featured an unlicensed sample from “Impeach.” The case claims that Universal Music Publishing has “repeatedly refused” to pay for the underlying composition, even though UMG Recordings has already agreed to a deal covering the master.
The new lawsuit is the latest chapter in a story dating back several decades, starting with a seminal 1991 case over an LL Cool J song that also featured “Impeach” – a legal battle that would ultimately prove to be the beginning of fundamental changes to how the music industry and the courts treated sampling.
Other top stories this week…
MADONNA CONCERT CLASH – The Material Girl fired back at a class action lawsuit filed by New York City fans who are angry that her concerts started later than scheduled, asking for the case to be dismissed. Madonna’s attorneys argued that needing to “wake up early the next day for work” is not the kind of “cognizable injury” someone can sue over, and that “no Madonna fan” has a “reasonable expectation” that her shows will start on time.
LAST NIGHT (ALLEGEDLY) – Morgan Wallen was arrested in Nashville and charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment over accusations that he threw a chair off the six-story roof of a popular bar on the city’s bustling Broadway street, allegedly narrowly missing several police officers. He was later released on bond, and his lawyer told Billboard he was “cooperating fully with authorities.”
RAMONES MOVIE LAWSUIT – Joey Ramone‘s brother (Mickey Leigh) responded to a lawsuit filed by Johnny Ramone’s widow (Linda Cummings-Ramone) over a planned Netflix movie about the pioneering punk band, calling the case “baseless and flimsy” and arguing that she actually signed off on such a project years ago.
AI COPYRIGHT DISCLOSURE BILL – Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced new legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require AI companies to disclose which copyrighted works were used to train their models, or face a financial penalty. The measure would not directly require payment to artists, but would certainly make it easier for copyright owners to file infringement cases against AI companies demanding such compensation.
NEW DIDDY ABUSE CASE – Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with yet another sexual abuse case, this time centering on allegations that his son Christian “King” Combs assaulted a staffer on a luxury yacht in the Caribbean. The case, one of many against Diddy over the past six months, claimed that he “encouraged an environment of debauchery” that enabled his son’s behavior.
ACCUSER’S LAWYER CRITICIZED – Tyrone Blackburn, an attorney who has filed two of the pending sexual abuse cases against Combs, could be facing potential discipline himself. In a scathing ruling last week, a federal judge in an unrelated lawsuit referred him to the court’s grievance committee over his “pattern of behavior” in which he allegedly “improperly files cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly.”
ROD WAVE ARRESTED OVER SHOOTING – The rapper was arrested on gun charges in Florida over alleged connections to a shooting last month at a sports bar in St. Petersburg. At a press conference after the arrest, police claimed that the alleged assailants used a getaway car registered to Wave and fled to a house he had rented, where they later discovered two assault rifles and other evidence.
MORE BIZARRE DONDA CLAIMS – Kanye West was hit with another lawsuit filed by a former employee at his Donda Academy, this time accusing him of discriminating against Black staffers. Like the several previous cases from former staffers, the case included bizarre allegations about conditions inside the school – including that West told students to “shave their heads” and that he “intended to put a jail at the school” where students could be “locked in cages.”
