A former boxer/rapper/lawyer reportedly filed a $88 million lawsuit in Brooklyn in late May against Jay-Z for copyright infringement.
According to documents obtained by TMZ, Mitchell Rose claims that he had given a demo tape to Jay-Z after the March 2001 boxing fight, and thereafter the rapper copied and used a style he calls "whisper rapping" without his consent or permission.
"I saw Jay-Z as we were leaving the arena after the fight, I gave him my tape, and asked him to listen to it," he said in a statement. "He took the demo with him and shortly after that he began using the whispering (which he now frequents) in his songs."
Rose claims that the rapper's use of the style had blocked his own fledging music aspirations, keeping him from moving forward while Jay profited from it.
"I had previously trained some of my artists to use that style, but it quickly became obsolete after Jay-Z got a hold of it," he explains. "He used the whispering to enhance his music and financially benefit from it. Jay-Z disregarded the fact that it was my demo where he got the style from as he went on to use it for his own personal gains, which is wrong."
Jay-Z's camp has yet to comment on the suit.
Source: BallerStatus.com
According to documents obtained by TMZ, Mitchell Rose claims that he had given a demo tape to Jay-Z after the March 2001 boxing fight, and thereafter the rapper copied and used a style he calls "whisper rapping" without his consent or permission.
"I saw Jay-Z as we were leaving the arena after the fight, I gave him my tape, and asked him to listen to it," he said in a statement. "He took the demo with him and shortly after that he began using the whispering (which he now frequents) in his songs."
Rose claims that the rapper's use of the style had blocked his own fledging music aspirations, keeping him from moving forward while Jay profited from it.
"I had previously trained some of my artists to use that style, but it quickly became obsolete after Jay-Z got a hold of it," he explains. "He used the whispering to enhance his music and financially benefit from it. Jay-Z disregarded the fact that it was my demo where he got the style from as he went on to use it for his own personal gains, which is wrong."
Jay-Z's camp has yet to comment on the suit.
Source: BallerStatus.com