MF DOOM’s Widow and Property Sue Rapper’s Former A&R, Search Return of His Private Notebooks

Jasmine Dumile Thompson, the widow of the late MF DOOM, and Gasoline Drawls, the LLC that controls his mental property, have sued DOOM’s former A&R Egon Alapatt for copyright infringement, fraud, intentional misrepresentation and unjust enrichment. The plaintiffs declare they maintain the rights to 31 of the late rapper’s notebooks at the moment in Alapatt’s possession. The notebooks comprise rap lyrics, notes, rhymes from beforehand launched and unreleased songs, drawings, and different concepts that the plaintiffs declare is DOOM’s mental property. The grievance, filed in U.S. District Courtroom for the Central District of California, additionally names 50 “Does,” or people and/or entities whose names and capacities are at the moment not identified, appearing in live performance with Alapatt.

Within the grievance, the plaintiffs are looking for an an injunction requiring the return of the notebooks, the destruction of any copies, and prevention of additional replica or publication of the mental property contained within the notebooks. They declare Alapatt lied about how the notebooks got here into his possession, and that the lie dissuaded from them pursuing authorized motion in opposition to him, constituting fraud. They allege that Alapatt’s possession and duplication of the notebooks has allowed him to reap “a considerable financial profit” and that they require compensation. They’re looking for a declaratory judgment from the Courtroom that the notebooks are their property and never Alapatt’s.

DOOM met Alapatt whereas the latter was the final supervisor and A&R of Stones Throw Data. Alapatt is liable for introducing DOOM and Madlib, ensuing of their 2004 collaborative album Madvillainy. In 2009, DOOM officiated Alapatt’s marriage ceremony. The grievance alleges that DOOM saved the gathering of notebooks in his Los Angeles studio, and by 2010 there have been 31 of them. After touring to the UK that yr, he was unable to return attributable to immigration points. The plaintiffs declare that in 2016, whereas DOOM was within the UK, Alapatt took possession of the notebooks. She claims he informed DOOM that he paid the studio’s landlord “again lease” to stop the notebooks from being destroyed, and that when DOOM requested him to return the notebooks, he refused.

When reached by electronic mail, Alapatt’s lawyer mentioned:

“Mr. Alapatt appears to be like ahead to his day in courtroom to dismiss these frivolous and unfaithful allegations. Mr. Alapatt rescued these books from DOOM’s unpaid landlord who had taken possession of all of his belongings. With DOOM’s blessing, Mr. Alapatt supposed to donate the books to both the Smithsonian or the Cornell College Hip Hop Archive, the place they might be thought-about and studied by students, in the identical manner that manuscripts by nice poets or sheet music by nice composers are. Mr. Alapatt will do every thing he can to make sure that these traditionally important books are archived and guarded.”