Record company attempts to get real over song beats
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Universal Music Group is facing a lawsuit in New York federal court over an allegedly unauthorized sampling of the beats in hip-hop singer Mary J. Blige’s 1992 hit song “Real Love,” according to Reuters.
New York-based Tuff City Records claimed in its lawsuit filed Thursday that Ms. Blige’s song used part of the Honey Drippers’ 1972 funk song “Impeach the President” without authority and is requesting an unspecified amount of monetary damages, according to the wire service.
Neither party has commented on the suit and Ms. Blige is not named as a defendant.
Tuff City claims in the lawsuit that it owns copyrights in “tens of thousands of musical recordings and compositions from the genres of blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, funk, soul, hip-hop, New Orleans and Latin music, much of which might otherwise fall into obscurity.” The label has previously sued over samples allegedly misused in songs by other high-profile musicians including the Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Frank Ocean.
