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50, 2 Live in legal tussle
Attorney sues muscle-bound rapper on behalf of record label, saying he lifted lyrics for "In Da Club" from Luther Campbell's "It's Your Birthday."
What would we do without the occasional brilliantly ludicrous lawsuit?
Miami attorney Richard Wolfe delayed our having to answer that question this week, filing the granddaddy of music industry copyright-infringement lawsuits against beefcake rapper 50 Cent--real name Curtis James Jackson--along with his label, Eminem's Shady Records, and its parent company, Universal Music.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, attorney's fees, and other legal costs.
And a new hot tub.
The suit accuses 50 of stealing lyrics for his 2003 smash hit "In Da Club" from former 2 Live Crew front man Luther Campbell's "It's Your Birthday."
That song appeared on Campbell's 1994 solo release, Still a Freak for Life, five years after 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny" sent censors into a tizzy.
Campbell's "It's Your Birthday" includes the lines: "Go Freddie! Go! Go! Go Freddie! Go! Go! Go Freddie! It's your birthday. It's your birthday. It's your birthday."
"In Da Club" starts with the oft-repeated, modern-day birthday ditty, "Go shorty, it's your birthday. We gonna party like it's your birthday."
Wolfe filed the lawsuit in US District Court in Miami on behalf of Lil' Joe Wein Music, which holds the copyright on "It's Your Birthday" and many other Campbell and 2 Live Crew songs.
Lil' Joe Wein Music is owned by Joseph Weinberger, an attorney who previously counted Campbell among his clients. Weinberger bought the rights to Campbell's music when the rapper declared bankruptcy in the mid-1990s.
Wolfe previously squared off in a similar royalty-related case, with Wolfe representing rapper Peter Jones and winning a $2.3 million judgment against Campbell in 1994.
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