The long-delayed “Big Pimpin” lawsuit is finally set to be underway and defendant Jay Z is taking no chances when it boils down to coming out-of-pocket (more than he’s supposed to).
TMZ is reporting that the megastar rapper born Shawn Carter is asking a judge to disallow the future jury from glancing into his finances and his criminal history in order to have their opinions being swayed as the case develops.
To backtrack for those not in the know, the sampled foundation behind Jay Z and Timbaland’s 1999 smash hit was a 1960s Egyptian song titled “Khosara Khosara,” and the artist’s heir, Abdel Halim Hafez, is claiming the Hip-Hop pair not only infringed on the copyright of the record, but lyrically used it in a demeaning way. The case has been eight years in the making and will finally go to court in October, where Jay Z is expected to testify.
Carter, easily one of the most successful–commercially and financially–Hip-Hop artists to ever grace a mic, values at net worth of $550 million according to a very recent Forbes report. Allowing a prosecutor to paint the picture that he got rich stealing from unknown artists would spell a certain doom for the case. On the contrary, the plaintiff is claiming that since Jay Z “stole” the “Big Pimpin” sample, his criminal past is very much on the table here.
We’re guessing an out-of-court settlement is also out?
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Photo: WENN
