The rap wars are usually known as the East Coast – West Coast hip hop rivalry in the 1990s between artists and fans of the East Coast rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (Bad Boy Records) and West Coast rapper 2Pac (Death Row Records), both of whom were murdered.
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In 2013 a new rap war is escalating, now the mature rap industry has became intellectual. This time rap wars are fought in court rooms, using Intellectual Property Right lawyers instead of guns.
Kanye West is one of the best known pirate’s for sampling a 1974 recording in several songs, including West’s chart-topping “Gold Digger” track.
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That sample is Ray Charles – I Got A Woman.
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The other rapper involved in the intellectual war is a globally known artist Jay-z, or Shawn Corey Carter. In 2012, Forbes estimated Carter’s net worth at nearly $500 million. He has sold approximately 50 million albums worldwide, while receiving seventeen Grammy Awards for his musical work, and numerous additional nominations. Consistently ranked as one of the greatest rappers of all-time, he was ranked #1 by MTV in their list of The Greatest MCs of All-Time in 2006.Two of his albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996) and The Blueprint (2001), are considered landmarks in the genre with both of them being ranked in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The song that landed him in court was Big Pimpin.
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The nephew of an Egyptian composer, Osama Ahmed Fahmy filed a motion for contempt against Jay-z, EMI, Warner Music and more than a dozen other defendants for failing to hand over documents showing all the concerts figures, in order to count copyright royalty revenue.
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The actual song sample is known as Khosara, Khosara or;
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However, one of the more interesting intellectual rap battle’s is fought by an artist called Rick Ross, who was sued for misappropriating the name and identity of a former drug kingpin “Freeway” Ricky Ross. In March, 20, 2013, California Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rita J. Miller threw out a right of privacy lawsuit ruling that the convicted cocaine trafficker waited too long to bring his claims.
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The song has since sold over 5,600,000 copies, became five time’s platinum certified by RIAA. While, the real “Freeway” Ricky Ross was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of trying to purchase more than 100 kilograms of cocaine from a federal agent.