A groupe of Memphis rappers are suing legendary hip hop group Three 6 Mafia claiming copyright infringement.
Not one or two, but nine Memphis rappers are claimed Three 6 Mafia’s DJ Paul and Juicy J have been jacking their sounds for years—and they’ve had enough. On Monday (Mar. 2), a bunch of Memphis-based rappers sued the legendary hip-hop group, claiming they committed over 150 instances of copyright infringement in more than 100 songs dating back to 1993.
In documents obtained by TMZ, the rappers claimed the copyright infringement started around the time that they started to work with Three 6’s DJ Paul and Juicy J in the 1990s. The other artists said despite producing, recording, and writing the lyrics that would eventually fuel Three 6 Mafia’s rise to international stardom, they never received a penny for their work.
Rapper Kingpin Skinny Pimp told WREG Memphis that he never gave anyone permission to use his work and certainly never saw any shares from the royalties. “I never knew that I was on certain songs,” rapper Kingpin Skinny Pimp said.
Among one of the many offending tracks listed is the group’s “Tear Da Club Up” song, which went on to be one of the group’s biggest hits. “People would come to me all the time, ‘Man, you need to sue Three 6 Mafia. Man, don’t you know that song they sampled it off Koopsta Knicca, or they sampled it on his new album. You got your voice on his greatest hits.’ I’m like, ‘For real?'” rapper Lil Ced told WREG.
While another artist told WREG he isn’t looking for anything that he isn’t owed.
“I want my due royalties, back-pay for anything that was used that was created that I can get paid on in the past,” rapper MC Mack said.
Attorney Bradley Eiseman is representing the plaintiff who wants unspecified damages, as well as an injunction blocking Three 6 Mafia from continuing to profit off the work involved in the infringement allegations.
Three 6 Mafia has not made a public comment on the lawsuit.
