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Posted by Dave
Rap News Network
7/24/2007 5:10:10 AM
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Shakur Estate Files Injunction Against Death Row Records
The estate of Tupac Shakur has filed an
injunction against Death Row Records to prohibit the sale of unreleased
2Pac material in the company bankruptcy auction.
Topics - Hip Hop, Rap, Law, Record Labels, Public Records. Find more
related articles under the related topics section shown in the box to
the right.
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 today, July 20, 2007.
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 today, 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."
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