{"id":7022,"date":"2025-07-22T22:49:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/50-cent-ex-lawsuit-salt-n-pepa-sean-kingston-more-music-law-news\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T22:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:49:16","slug":"50-cent-ex-lawsuit-salt-n-pepa-sean-kingston-more-music-law-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/50-cent-ex-lawsuit-salt-n-pepa-sean-kingston-more-music-law-news\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Cent Ex Lawsuit, Salt-N-Pepa, Sean Kingston & More Music Law News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tTHE BIG STORY:<\/strong> 50 Cent hasn\u2019t released an album since 2014. Maybe he\u2019s just been too busy with litigation?<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his latest legal battle, the rapper\u2019s G-Unit Books is accusing ex-girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins of violating a \u201clife rights\u201d agreement by posting a series of \u201ctell-all\u201d Instagram videos. The lawsuit, filed last week, says the company paid Tompkins $80,000 in 2007 in return for \u201call rights to exploit her life story\u201d \u2014 a deal they explicitly say was meant to protect the rapper\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJackson purchased these rights to preserve them for use in future biographical or autobiographical projects, but also in part because he was concerned that Tompkins would attempt to monetize their history and his name,\u201d the rapper\u2019s lawyers wrote. \u201cHis concerns were ultimately proven correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTo say that 50 Cent is familiar with the court system would be something of an understatement.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rapper is currently embroiled in litigation with the producers of a horror movie in which he plays the starring role, and his liquor brand just won court approval to seize the Connecticut home<\/a> of a former exec who stole money from the company. Last year, he sued another ex-girlfriend for defamation over her abuse accusations; before that, he spent years battling with R\u00e9my Martin over accusations that his cognac brand copied the company\u2019s bottle design.<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps the most notable? A 2022 lawsuit in which he accused a Miami medical spa of falsely suggesting that he\u2019d had penis surgery. In his court papers, the rapper said the owner of the spa exploited an innocent photo he\u2019d \u201cgraciously agreed\u201d to take with her to imply that he was a client \u2014 and, more startlingly, that he had received penile enhancement.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll that action doesn\u2019t come cheap: Last year, 50 Cent claimed he\u2019d spent an astronomical $24 million in legal fees during his career. But he also didn\u2019t express regret about doing so: \u201cWhen they agitate me, I\u2019ll send the f\u2013king lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStay with Billboard<\/em> for all the updates on 50 Cent\u2019s latest case against Tompkins \u2014 and for any new litigation that comes next.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re reading The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from <\/em>Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, go subscribe here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\t\tOther top stories this week\u2026<\/strong>\t<\/h3>\n

\n\tTERMINATION BATTLE <\/strong>\u2013 Universal Music Group (UMG) fired back at a lawsuit from Salt-N-Pepa that seeks to win back control of their masters through copyright law\u2019s termination right, arguing that the case is legally invalid because the pioneering hip-hop duo was not actually a party to its 1986 record deal. The motion cited a ruling that rejected an earlier class action against UMG that sought to terminate copyrights en masse \u2014 and pointedly noted that Salt-N-Pepa\u2019s lawyers worked on that same earlier case.<\/p>\n

\n\tJANE\u2019S LITIGATION <\/strong>\u2013 Members of Jane\u2019s Addiction sued frontman Perry Farrell for allegedly attacking guitarist Dave Navarro onstage at a Boston concert last year, claiming the assault cost them millions by forcing the cancellation of the rest of their reunion tour and derailing plans for a new album. Hours later, Farrell filed his own suit, claiming he was actually the victim in the viral scuffle after years of \u201cbullying\u201d by his bandmates.<\/p>\n

\n\tANTITRUST ARRAIGNMENT <\/strong>\u2013 Tim Leiweke<\/strong>, the live entertainment mogul and former CEO of Oak View Group, surrendered to authorities and pleaded not guilty to a federal criminal antitrust charge over allegations of bid-rigging. Prosecutors say Leiweke conspired to rig the bidding for the construction and management of the Moody Center Arena, a $338 million, 19,000-seat facility in Austin.<\/p>\n

\n\tGO EASY ON ME<\/strong> \u2013 Rapper Sean Kingston\u2019s mother (Janice Turner) pleaded with a federal judge for a light prison sentence following the mom-son duo\u2019s convictions for running a fraudulent scheme to effectively steal high-end cars, jewelry and other luxury goods. A pre-sentencing report says she should spend at least five years in prison, but her lawyers argued that such a lengthy term was \u201cwholly unnecessary\u201d for a woman who was a \u201cpillar in her community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBUFFETT ESTATE FIGHT <\/strong>\u2013 Jimmy Buffett\u2019s widow Jane argued in new court filings that her late husband\u2019s longtime business manager (Rick Mozenter) is improperly using her inheritance to bankroll his legal battle for control of the singer-songwriter\u2019s $275 million estate. The filing came amid ongoing litigation in which each side is trying to oust the other from their roles as co-trustees of the star\u2019s hefty estate, which includes a stake in his successful island-themed hospitality company, Margaritaville.<\/p>\n

\n\tLIZZO LAWSUIT<\/strong> \u2013 Lawyers for Lizzo\u2019s company asked a judge to dismiss a harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by former tour wardrobe designer Asha Daniels, calling it an \u201cabsurd\u201d case that \u201cmakes a mockery of true victims.\u201d The motion comes months after a judge dismissed Lizzo herself from the case, which is separate from a more high-profile case filed by three backup dancers over similar accusations.<\/p>\n

\n\tABUSE SETTLEMENT <\/strong>\u2013 Shia LaBeouf reached a confidential settlement to end a lawsuit filed by FKA Twigs that accused the actor of subjecting her to a \u201cliving nightmare\u201d of abuse during their romantic relationship. The former couple\u2019s powerhouse lawyers \u2014 Bryan Freedman<\/strong> for Twigs and Shawn Holley<\/strong> for LaBeouf \u2014 confirmed the agreement in a joint statement: \u201cCommitted to forging a constructive path forward, we have agreed to settle our case out of court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBIGGIE BIGGIE BIGGIE<\/strong> \u2013 The Notorious B.I.G.\u2019s estate reached a settlement with Target, Nordstrom and other retailers that allegedly sold unauthorized canvas prints of the famed \u201cKing of New York\u201d photo snapped just days before the legendary rapper\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\n\tNO CHARGES<\/strong> \u2013 U.K. police announced that Irish rap group Kneecap would not be criminally charged for shouting \u201cFree Palestine\u201d and \u201c\u2018F\u2014 Keir Starmer\u201d during its politically-charged set at the Glastonbury Festival last month. Local police said there was \u201cinsufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for any offence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBEACH BRAWL<\/strong> \u2013 Backstreet Boys member Brian Littrell filed a lawsuit against a Florida sheriff\u2019s office for allegedly refusing to take action against trespassers at his oceanfront home\u2019s private beach. The case cited body camera footage in which a police officer allegedly told a trespasser that he \u201cdoesn\u2019t agree with private beaches\u201d and called Littrell\u2019s police reports \u201clunacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE BIG STORY: 50 Cent hasn\u2019t released an album since 2014. Maybe he\u2019s just been too busy with litigation? In his latest legal battle, the rapper\u2019s G-Unit Books […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[950,6504,153,303,593,310,6015,1366],"class_list":["post-7022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-cent","tag-kingston","tag-law","tag-lawsuit","tag-music","tag-news","tag-saltnpepa","tag-sean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7022","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=7022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}