A Legal Battle Ensues Between Tupac’s Mother & Suge Knight
Lawyers for Amaru Entertainment and Afeni Shakur, co-administrator of the Tupac Shakur Estate, filed for an injunction against Death Row Records, Inc. and R. Todd Neilson, as Chapter 11 Trustee, to prohibit the inclusion of Tupac Shakur’s unreleased tracks, compositions or sound recordings in the auction of Death Row Records. The adversary complaint was filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles on July 20, 2007.
Deathrow is milking Tupac until the last drop, the rest of the story below.
The injunction sought to restrain the sale of certain assets belonging to the Tupac Estate which are being touted as part of the Death Row Records bankruptcy assets. With closed bidding ending Friday, July 20, 2007 lawyers for the Tupac Estate sought full disclosure by the Bankruptcy Trustee’s counsel that the unreleased master recordings in question were not part of the sale. In actuality, the recordings should have been turned over to the Tupac Shakur Estate in 1997, pursuant to a settlement agreement reached with Death Row Records.
“The 1997 Death Row Agreement provided that all unreleased songs physically housed in the data vaults at Death Row Records, would become the rightful property of the Tupac Shakur Estate,” said Donald N. David, General Counsel for Amaru Entertainment and shareholder at Akerman Senterfitt LLP. “Conversely, the Estate was under the assumption that it was in possession of all master recordings containing Tupac as a featured artist or side artist, as represented by Death Row. However, upon assessing the Debtor’s bankruptcy assets, it was revealed that an album’s worth of unreleased Tupac material was being advertised to potential buyers as the jewel in the crown of the Death Row assets, which is in direct violation of the terms of the 1997 settlement with Death Row.”
At the time of his death, Tupac had recorded approximately 152 unreleased songs, which remained in the vaults of Death Row Records. Nowhere in the contract between Tupac and the record company was it provided that ownership of the unreleased material belonged to Death Row, thus at that time, the Tupac Estate sought custody of the master tapes and any unreleased recordings featuring Tupac. Unable to come to an agreement, the Tupac Estate eventually filed a lawsuit against the rap music label, ending in a written settlement obligating Death Row to surrender all physical master tapes featuring Tupac in June of 1997.
By April of 2006, Death Row Records head Marion “Suge” Knight sought bankruptcy protection for himself and the record company, claiming debts in excess of $100 million dollars. Earlier this year, proceedings began in the liquidation of Knight’s assets, including the auctioning of Death Row Records and all of the label’s music publishing copyrights, master recordings and trademarks.
The first component of the two-part proceedings is the closed bidding phase, when bidders submit a sealed bid for the assets on auction to the Debtor’s Trustee. All bids are considered at once, with the winning bid then made public, at which time open bids are accepted. Erroneously listed as part of the label’s assets were several unreleased master recordings featuring Tupac that are the property of the Tupac Estate.
“As of July 17, 2007, following repeated notices on behalf of the Tupac Shakur Estate, the Bankruptcy Trustee’s counsel would not confirm whether the unreleased Tupac Shakur master recordings were excluded from the auction sale,” said Mr. David. “Tupac Shakur is the highest selling rap artist in history and we are concerned that his inclusion in the sale falsely inflates the value of the property.”
Tupac Shakur is the highest selling rap artist of all time, with over forty-five million albums sold to date. The prolific artist left behind a remarkable legacy inspiring artists all over the world with his profound words that elevated rap into poetry. In the 10 years since Tupac’s murder, interest in his life and works remains just as great, with fans, historians, filmmakers and educators still drawing upon his messages of hope and survival for meaning to the complex world we live in today. In 1997, The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation (TASF) was established by his mother Ms. Afeni Shakur, to keep Tupac’s dream alive. The Foundation was created in order to give young people a chance to excel in the arts and in life through programs offered at The Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Performing Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
33 Comments so far
First bitches
no one could give a flying fuck who’s first
them mah fukkaz wanna hold pac material jus so they can keep spendin his money but in the words of pac revenge is the sweetest joy next 2 get’n pu??ÿ. but I hope & pray they get what’s due & comin 2 them.
Both sides are guilty of milking Tupac. Let the man rest in peace…
FOURTH BEEEEEYATCH!
IM JUST PLAYIN
^lol
fuck Pac. only had one good album and 2 good singles, the rest of his shit was trash. lyrically he was trash.
bitch are you stupid dirty lil rican
“BryRican wrote on July 25th, 2007 at 9:00 am
fuck Pac. only had one good album and 2 good singles, the rest of his shit was trash. lyrically he was trash.”
Don’t you ever say that sh*t again. You piece of sh*t.
Ar bry you need to really watch what you say…dont speak ill of the dead since he is not here to defend himself others will!
To say ‘lyrically he was trash’ is FUCKING RIDICULOUS! I AGREE THAT SUGE HAS MILKED IT AND TAKEN SOME CREDIBILTY AWAY BUT YOU CANNOT DENY HIS TALENT! NO WAY!
LMAO! Niggas get mad sensitive whenever anything negative is said about 2Pac or Biggie. Ease up on the Rican.
For the record, both them niggas are overrated. Both have been surpassed by so many rappers - lyrically, rhyming and creativity-wise. If they weren’t dead, they wouldn’t be in the concensus top 5. I’m not even sure if either of them makes my top 10.
muthafuckas is sensitive up in here, and yes he was trash. he was trash before he got locked up, and became a little better after he was released. like 50 with jarule, pac claim was when he started dissing biggie and every other hot artist out of NY. YES he was trash, but most of ya dudes in here are too young to know it. Fuck PAC.
#2 you aint shit
lmao BryRican, ur fuckin retarded
anyways, both death row AND his mama are tryin to milk pac to the last drop….i mean seriously, who released loyal to the game? who released better days? who released pac’s life or wahtever that garbage ass album was? NOT DEATHROW…..nah it was all Amaru Records, which is obviously Afeni’s record label, so Afeni has been doin the exact same shit that suges tryna do…..
All i know is they both tryna bleed pac life His mother should have his masters though thats what pac would have wanted Suge was Fake friends..Did`nt pac have a song called fake friends well thats what he meant by that..
Suge`s a Punk!!
But thank god for Death Row They had Great Music ova there!!
Theres is no comparison between Pac and Biggie. Pac is trash, Biggie is top three on everyones favorite rapper favorite rapper list
i know ppl are gonna come down on me, but Biggie is overrated like a muthafucka. he wasnt around that long, i am unaffected by his demise. Pac all day baby!!!!
@ #10 you are right. i cant even lie. i love pac but not because of his lyrical ability (music is about more than lyrics you dumb asses) but his ability to make u feel him.
coments 13 and 14 ya rite both milking that nigga dry,and ya can’t say biggie waz wack,he wasn’t even in hiz prime yet he died young and he was still nice,but i wonder how people would think of them if they waz still here
but i wonder how people would think of them if they waz still here
too bad we will never know piff
I bet all of yall sayin shit bout pac and biggie are under 25 you wet behind the ears little shits was coming up with all this gimmicky ass rap I’m a female and I know rap better than any of you ever will, oh yeah and by the way yall dont even buy records so you probably aint heard half of pac shit so sit ya young ass down and shut the fuck up!QB all day
F*ck A BryRican
R.I.P to Pac
I got love for the both of them brothas rest peace both. I see alot of stupid ass remarks on the boards, what ever we do it’s good better believe that sh**
BRYRICAN U A FAGGOT GO EAT A BOWL A DICK WHEN THE FUCK U DROP A ALBUM THAT SOLD 5 MILLION? OR HAVE WORLDWIDE RECOGNITION AS A RAPPER/ACTOR/PHILOSOPHER? REAL MUTHAFUCKAZ ON HERE KNO 2PAC WAS A FUCKN SOLDIER A LEADER DUNT EVEN TRY 2 CATERGORIZE PAC WIT OTHA RAPPERS, EVERY THING HE MADE HAD EMOTION N IT LIKE IT CAME RIGHT FROM HIS HEART N SOUL U CANT SAY THAT BOUT MANY ARTISTS. HIS WORK ETHIC WAS INCOMPARABLE 99% OF ANY RAPPER THAT CAME OUT AFTA HIM BIT HIS STYLE N SUM WAY SHAPE OR FORM N THATS A FACT.WUTS FUCKED UP IS, I WOULDNT GIVA FUCK IF U JUS SAID UR OPINION HOW U FEEL BOUT HIS MUSIC BUT DUNT BE TALKN DOWN ON HIM U A STR8 BITCH
BryRican
wtf u know about MUSIC and hiphop/rap??
go listen to ur lil wayne
u dumb fuck lil fagboy
dont kno shit dont say shit
someone go hack dat mutherfuker
2pac 4 Life
Until The End Of Time
these lawsuits been going on ever since he died.. i jus say release everything in one package so all the tru fans can buy it
NAS AND JAY Z SHIT ON TUPAC., IM DEAD SERIOUS.
I FOT LOVE FOR PAC, HE MESSAGE WAS ALWAYS GOOD IN HIS MUSIC,
BUT LYRICALLY NAS AND JAY Z SHIT ON HIM…..
WHAT NIGGAS, YALL PAC STANS THINK YOU GOT SHIT ON ME???
HUH??
WHAT NIGGAS WHAT?
Bry you should check yourself and mrme 2 when the fuck did your top ten start havin’ any kind of influence on hip hop? keep them garbage ass opinions to yourself FUCKBOY!!!
BRYRICAN OR GAYRICAN OR WAT DA FUCK UR FAGGOT ASS NAME IS …. JUST GO SUCK A DICK WITH A.I.D.S ON THE TIP AND DIE SLOW WASTE MAN…. GET PAC’S DICK OUTTA UR FUCKING MOUF B4 U GET SLAPPED IN UR MOM’S YARD… FUCKIN RETARD BASTARD!!!!! THIS AINT NO JOKE FUCKIN INTERNET WANKSTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I can’t beleive these young mother fuckers are talking down on two of the greatest rappers of all time like this, yo serious. yo fucken gay lovers and gangsta wanna be lovers. you need to give respect to these great rappers of all time, Pac and Biggie was kick’en real shit not no fake ass shit, granted both have different styles Pac was more of a Revolutionary plus street and Biggie was straight street shit. yo young’ens need to do yo homework and listen to this real dudes music instead of these fake ass gangsta wanna be,lame as fake dudes of course with the exaption of Nas, Jay-z, UGK and some of the real dudes that kick’en real shit. support real dudes that has some sense, don’t be stupid, young’ens. Do not talk crazy about Pac and Biggie, fuckers.
why do people on hea have to be so damn ignorant to get their point across, god damn!! im 25 grew up on nothin but hip hop and my position still stands. people need to calm down and smoke somethin
when he was alive all he had was a couple of singles and the Makaveli album. thats all he got. the double album was Trash. i dont give a fuck how much it sold. the album was trash. every album he has is trash except Makaveli. Once producers started taking his vocals and making there own songs, once that happened his shit started to sound better. On top of all that, all that emotion you hear on his tracks was the coke that nigga was snorting.
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