50 Cent’s legal team fired off new legal documents in the rapper’s case against Rick Ross, after his initial suit was thrown out.
In October of 2018, 50 sued Ross, his longtime rival, for using the instrumental from his 2003 cut “In Da Club.” The Miami rapper put the song on his 2015 mixtape the “Renzel Remixed Project,” used to build anticipation for his album “Black Market,” which came out in December of that same year.
The judge tossed out the original suit because 50, real name Curtis Jackson, doesn’t own either the copyright or the master recordings to the song — they’re owned by his former label Shady Records.
Ross likely rapped over the instrumental as a dig at the New York rhymer, since they’ve been beefing since 2008.
In rap circles, it’s commonplace for one artist to rap over the track of another during a beef, like when Jay-Z rapped over Jim Jones‘ “We Fly High” when they were going at it years ago.
In the new documents, 50’s lawyers said because Ross also used 50’s voice on the mixtape, not just the instrumental, he wrongfully used his rival’s brand to promote “Black Market.”
Ross, real name William Roberts, also yelled “Black Market” six times during the song, and 50’s legal team said that means he used their client’s name to advertise without consent.
“Mr. Roberts explicit advertisement for ‘Black Market’ clearly constitutes commercial speech, notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Roberts chose the vehicle of a song to deliver the repeated sales pitch ‘only on the ‘Black Market’…December 4th…the album is out,'” said 50’s lawyer Frederick A. Braunstein.
“Mr. Jackson does not challenge the unauthorized use of his voice in a purely entertainment work,” he continued. “He challenges the unauthorized use of his voice as part of an advertisement for a collateral product, ‘Black Market,’ for which he has no connection to whatsoever. ”
In a six degrees of separation kind of way, the beef between Ross and 50 has to do with 50’s archnemesis Ja Rule. Because in 2004 Rule dropped a song called “New York,” featuring Jadakiss and Fat Joe.
Due to 50’s beef with Rule that started years prior, 50 didn’t like that Jadakiss and Joe were on the song or in the video, and he waged war against them. Fat Joe and Ross are friends, and 50 began beefing with the Florida rapper as a result.
50 and Fat Joe have made up since then, but that obviously isn’t the case with 50 and Ross.
