THE BIG STORY: Snoop Dogg reached a confidential settlement with Trevor Lawrence Jr., a veteran studio musician who has been credited on songs by Bruno Mars, Alicia Keys, Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar and different high artists. Snoop and Lawrence have been locked in litigation for near a 12 months over two backing tracks on the 2022 album BODR.
Lawrence claimed Snoop didn’t correctly license his backing tracks earlier than utilizing them on the BODR songs “Pop Pop” and “Get This D–ok,” and that the legendary rapper made issues worse by additionally releasing each songs as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) with out his permission.
Snoop, in the meantime, stated he had a take care of Lawrence and paid the producer $20,000 earlier than releasing BODR. The rapper’s legal professionals criticized Lawrence in court docket papers for looking for a “preposterous windfall” of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} by means of the litigation.
Snoop and Lawrence’s settlement, reached with the assistance of a mediator, permits the 2 males to keep away from a pricey trial that was scheduled to start in September. However, even with out going to trial, the lawsuit supplied a glimpse at business practices surrounding the usage of backing tracks.
Lawrence alleged in his authorized grievance that he usually creates these instrumentals “on spec” and outlets them round to outstanding artists. Lawrence stated he permits artists to “experiment” with the tracks within the studio without cost, as he did on this case with Snoop Dogg, however that he expects a license to be negotiated earlier than a track is commercially launched.
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Different high tales this week…
DIDDY DELIBERATIONS – After seven weeks of trial, a jury of 12 New Yorkers lastly began discussing whether or not to seek out Sean “Diddy” Combs responsible of racketeering, intercourse trafficking and prostitution. Deliberations started after prolonged closing statements, throughout which the prosecution argued that the rapper ran a mob-like legal syndicate to pressure girls to take part within the marathon intercourse reveals he referred to as “freak-offs,” and the defense countered that Diddy and his girlfriends have been simply “swingers.” After two days of deliberations, the jury stated they’d reached a partial verdict on a few of the prices however remained deadlocked on racketeering. Their choice on all counts stays a thriller, and so they have been instructed to proceed working.
A WIN FOR BUZBEE – A Los Angles choose struck down Jay-Z’s extortion and defamation lawsuit in opposition to Tony Buzbee, the private damage legal professional who filed a stunning rape lawsuit in opposition to the rap icon that has since been dropped. The choose made clear, although, that Jay-Z would possibly have the ability to get his defamation claims revived on attraction if he can persuade a better court docket to think about proof of the nameless accuser supposedly admitting that Buzbee pushed her to manufacture the rape lawsuit.
BEAT BATTLE – Flo Milli, Babyface Ray and 42 Dugg have been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit from a person who claims to personal the unique license to a beat referred to as “Youu.” The person, named Shamar Deal, stated the beat was illegally re-licensed to Ray and Dugg for his or her 2023 monitor “Ron Artest,” which Milli then sampled on her Billboard Sizzling 100 hit “By no means Lose Me.” Deal’s lawsuit requested for greater than $1 million in damages from all three rappers and in addition focused distributors EMPIRE and Sony Music Leisure.
ATTORNEY ARRESTED – Tyrone Blackburn, a lawyer who’s bringing salacious racketeering and underage intercourse claims in opposition to Fat Joe, was arrested for allegedly hitting the rapper’s course of server together with his automotive. After Blackburn pled not responsible to the fees and was launched with out bail, his legal protection legal professional instructed Billboard that the incident was both an accident or a set-up by Fats Joe amid their court docket drama. Authorized Beat readers would possibly keep in mind Blackburn for making an attempt (unsuccessfully) to pull Common Music Group and its CEO Lucian Grainge right into a sexual assault lawsuit in opposition to Diddy.
J. LO PHOTO CASES – Paparazzo Edwin Blanco and movie star photograph company BackGrid USA dropped lawsuits alleging Jennifer Lopez posted footage of herself exterior a Golden Globes pre-party to Instagram and X with out paying to license the photographs. The circumstances accused Lopez of violating the federal Copyright Act and carried doable damages of as much as $150,000 per photograph. Voluntary dismissals like this are sometimes indicators of settlements, but it surely was not clear whether or not the pop singer and actress paid to get the circumstances dropped.
ASSAULT LAWSUIT – Music producer Abe Diaw agreed to dismiss his civil lawsuit accusing Chris Brown of assaulting him at a London nightclub in 2023. As with the J. Lo case, it isn’t recognized whether or not Brown paid a settlement earlier than the swimsuit was dropped. Brown remains to be dealing with legal prices in England over the incident at Tape nightclub, the place the R&B singer allegedly struck Diaw a number of instances with a bottle of Don Julio 1942 after which stomped on him till he fell unconscious.
PIRACY PRECEDENT – The Supreme Court docket agreed to review a $1 billion jury verdict gained by Common Music Group, Sony Music Leisure and Warner Music Group over alleged music piracy by customers of Cox Communications from 2019. In taking on the case, the justices set the stage to determine on a broad scale whether or not the nation’s varied web service suppliers will be held liable in the event that they fail to take motion when subscribers obtain music illegally.
ERAS TOUR PLOT – German prosecutors charged a Syrian-born teenager with serving to plan the foiled terrorist assault at Taylor Swift’s deliberate Eras Tour cease in Vienna final summer time, saying a juvenile recognized as “Mohammed A” translated bomb-making directions for the principle suspect and despatched alongside the Islamic State oath of allegiance. Authorities in Austria beforehand made three arrests over the harrowing near-incident, which was found and thwarted, however nonetheless compelled the cancellation of Swift’s deliberate reveals at Ernst Happel Stadium.