{"id":6912,"date":"2025-07-15T21:32:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T21:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/notorious-b-i-g-drake-witnesses-karol-g-win-more-music-law-news\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T21:32:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T21:32:23","slug":"notorious-b-i-g-drake-witnesses-karol-g-win-more-music-law-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/notorious-b-i-g-drake-witnesses-karol-g-win-more-music-law-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Notorious B.I.G., Drake Witnesses, Karol G Win & More Music Law News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tTHE BIG STORY: <\/strong>As Biggie once said, \u201cMo Money Mo Problems.\u201d The landmark sale of half of The Notorious B.I.G.\u2019s portfolio to Primary Wave has sparked a messy legal dispute between the estate of the rap icon\u2019s mother, Voletta Wallace, and Biggie\u2019s R&B singer widow, Faith Evans.<\/p>\n

\n\tWayne Barrow<\/strong>, a record executive who became executor of Voletta\u2019s estate upon her death this February, filed a Delaware court petition claiming Evans has refused to share profits from the Primary Wave deal \u2014 in which the estate sold off a stake in Biggie\u2019s catalog as well as certain name, image and likeness rights for a reported $100 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tBarrow said that while Evans distributed sale proceeds to herself and Biggie\u2019s children, Voletta\u2019s estate still has not received its cut. The petition seeks to force a turnover of these profits, as well as to remove Evans from her role as sole manager of the LLC that manages Biggie\u2019s assets due to her \u201ccontinued misconduct and disregard for her obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is far from the first time infighting over a deceased artist\u2019s estate has ended up in court. The family members of numerous late musical legends, from Prince to Leonard Cohen to Michael Jackson, have all brought legal actions against those managing their hefty inheritances.<\/p>\n

\n\tJust last month, Jimmy Buffett\u2019s $275 million estate became mired in a similar legal battle between the singer-songwriter\u2019s widow, Jane Buffett<\/strong>, and former business manager\/co-trustee Rick Mozenter<\/strong>. The two have filed dueling claims accusing each other of hostility and mismanagement of the assets, which include a stake in Buffett\u2019s successful island-themed hospitality company, Margaritaville.<\/p>\n

\n\tMo money mo problems, indeed.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther top stories this week\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCERTIFIED WITNESS LIST <\/strong>\u2013 Drake\u2019s legal team filed a list of 63 potential witnesses in his defamation lawsuit accusing Universal Music Group (UMG) of boosting Kendrick Lamar\u2019s chart-topping diss track \u201cNot Like Us.\u201d The list includes some music industry bigwigs, including UMG CEO Sir Lucian Grainge<\/strong>, Interscope Records CEO John Janick<\/strong> and Republic Records co-founders Avery Lipman<\/strong> and Monte Lipman<\/strong>. Drake notably did not list Lamar as a potential witness, though UMG included the Los Angeles rapper on its own, much more concise potential witness list of nine names.<\/p>\n

\n\tCOPYRIGHT DEFEAT <\/strong>\u2013 A federal judge threw out a lawsuit that accused Karol G and Ti\u00ebsto of copying Cuban-American composer Rene Lorente-Garcia\u2019s 1998 song \u201cAlgo Diferente\u201d for their 2021 dance-pop hit \u201cDon\u2019t Be Shy.\u201d The judge held that Lorente-Garcia\u2019s \u201cexpert\u201d was unqualified to opine on supposed similarities between the two songs, noting that the former A&R executive retained for the case had no musicology expertise and offered up only \u201cpersonal intuition\u201d to support the infringement claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tEXTORTION ACCUSATIONS <\/strong>\u2013 Michael Jackson\u2019s estate identified Frank Cascio as the previously anonymous man behind a supposed extortion plot. The Jackson estate claimed in a new court filing that Cascio, who had known the King of Pop since childhood and went on to become the singer\u2019s manager, fabricated abuse allegations in pursuit of a $213 million settlement a few years back. The estate said this was a total about-face after years of Cascio publicly defending Jackson against claims of pedophilia in national television interviews and his 2011 memoir, My Friend Michael<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBID-RIGGING INDICTMENT <\/strong>\u2013 Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke<\/strong> was hit with criminal charges stemming from the company\u2019s 2017 contract to build the Moody Center Arena in Austin. The Department of Justice\u2019s Antitrust Division claimed Leiweke conspired with the chief executive of Legends Hospitality to rig the bidding for the construction and management of the $338 million, 19,000-seat arena \u2014 allegations that Leiweke called \u201cwrong on the facts and the law\u201d in an internal staff memo announcing his resignation the day of the indictment.<\/p>\n

\n\tIP INJUNCTION <\/strong>\u2013 T.I. was hit with a legal injunction that prohibits him from releasing his upcoming comedy movie under the title \u201cSituationships\u201d while litigating claims that he stole the moniker from creator Cylla Senii\u2019s web series of the same name. A judge said Senii had a strong case for trademark infringement and that she would suffer \u201cirreparable harm\u201d if T.I. were allowed to use the name for his movie, which filmed in Atlanta last year and is now in post-production.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEMO DUST-UP <\/strong>\u2013 Travis Scott, SZA and Future asked to dismiss gospel singer Victory Boyd\u2019s copyright lawsuit over their 2023 hit \u201cTelekinesis.\u201d The group of hitmakers said the case is fatally flawed because the demo at issue in the dispute, an unreleased track called \u201cLike the Way It Sounds,\u201d was co-written by Ye (formerly Kanye West). According to the motion, Ye expressly provided Scott, SZA and Future with this demo and authorized them to use it for \u201cTelekinesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tK-POP PROBE <\/strong>\u2013 South Korea\u2019s financial watchdog referred Bang Si-hyuk<\/strong>, chairman and founder of K-pop powerhouse HYBE, to prosecutors for possible criminal charges over the company\u2019s initial public offering (IPO). Authorities say Bang made roughly 400 billion won ($291 million) by falsely assuring investors that HYBE had no plans to go public, persuading them to sell their shares to a private equity fund in which he held a financial stake when the IPO process had already been initiated. HYBE has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\n\tDIDDY CIVIL LAWSUIT <\/strong>\u2013 A judge significantly trimmed down the claims in one of the first civil sexual abuse lawsuits that was brought against Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs last year. The judge said the statute of limitations has expired for allegations that the rap mogul raped Fashion Institute of Technology student April Lampros three times in the 1990s, though Lampros is allowed to keep suing over a fourth incident in which she says Combs forcibly kissed and groped her in the early aughts.<\/p>\n

\n\tLABELS ON DEFENSE <\/strong>\u2013 Nationwide shoe retailer DSW filed an unusual lawsuit against Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment that flipped the script on the major labels\u2019 common practice of taking legal action against businesses that don\u2019t pay for the songs in their social media posts. DSW alleged that it shouldn\u2019t have to buy so-called \u201csynch\u201d licenses to use music on TikTok and Instagram, and that the labels\u2019 frequent settlement demands sent to brands are \u201copportunistic attempts to extract still more money for copyrights on which they have already received full compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMORE YE CLAIMS <\/strong>\u2013 Ye\u2019s former assistant Lauren Pisciotta added rape and sex-trafficking claims to her bombshell sexual harassment lawsuit against the controversial rapper. On top of previous allegations that Ye regularly masturbated in front of Pisciotta and sent her explicit texts and photos, they rapper\u2019s former assistant-turned-chief of staff claimed in an amended complaint that he also used coercion and false promises of career advancement to grope and orally assault her. A rep for Ye denied the new claims as \u201cfantasy fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAI ANALYSIS <\/strong>\u2013 Two recent court decisions struck a blow for book authors suing generative AI platforms on copyright grounds, with judges concluding that training large language models (LLM) on unlicensed books is \u201ctransformative\u201d and thus constitutes \u201cfair use.\u201d While that left many to question whether music companies\u2019 own infringement lawsuits against Anthropic, Suno and Udio are similarly doomed, legal experts told Billboard<\/em> it\u2019s far from clear that this same reasoning will apply to the music industry \u2014 and the rulings might even provide a roadmap for the labels and music publishers to strengthen their cases.<\/p>\n

\n\tASSAULT INVESTIGATION <\/strong>\u2013 Police began investigating Trey Songz after cameraman Isaa Mansoor accused the R&B singer of punching him and destroying more than $5,000 worth of equipment following a concert at a Long Island restaurant. A representative for Songz disputed Mansoor\u2019s version of events, which was captured on video and posted to Instagram. The Suffolk County Police Department said no criminal charges have yet been filed.<\/p>\n

\n\tRAPE SENTENCING <\/strong>\u2013 K-pop star Taeil, who found fame as part of SM Entertainment boy band NCT, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for rape. Taeil pled guilty last month to raping a heavily intoxicated Chinese tourist after meeting her at a bar in Seoul. The crime was committed alongside two other men, who also received the same prison sentence in Seoul Central District Court.<\/p>\n

\n\tBOTTLE ATTACK <\/strong>\u2013 Chris Brown pled not guilty to two additional criminal counts stemming from his alleged assault on music producer Abe Diaw<\/strong> at a London nightclub in 2023. The R&B singer, who previously pled not guilty to his most serious charge of unlawfully and maliciously causing grievous bodily harm with intent, also denied charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon \u2014 a bottle \u2014 in a public place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE BIG STORY: As Biggie once said, \u201cMo Money Mo Problems.\u201d The landmark sale of half of The Notorious B.I.G.\u2019s portfolio to Primary Wave has sparked a messy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5989,441,5107,153,593,310,5988,834,2617],"class_list":["post-6912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-b-i-g","tag-drake","tag-karol","tag-law","tag-music","tag-news","tag-notorious","tag-win","tag-witnesses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}