News: Cypress Hill Hit W/ $29 Mil Suit Over "Black Sunday" Sample
Friday, Oct 17, 2008 1:22PM
West Coast rap group Cypress Hill are being sued for $29 million due to a sampling conflict stemming from their triple platinum, 1993 album, Black Sunday.
According to TMZ, legendary blues singer Syl Johnson
filed a lawsuit against the hip-hop band claiming the music from his
1969 record "Is It Because I'm Black" were used without permission on
Hill's "Lock Down (Interlude)." Despite Hill's track being over 15
years-old and not using the actual lyrics from the song, Johnson has
decided to sue the group plus a number of record and publishing
companies for the brief soundbite.
Cypress Hill, who were recently honored at VH1's 5th annual Hip-Hop Honors event, were not available for comment as of press time.
Johnson, who is the father of R&B singer Syleena Johnson, has a history of suing other musicians for allegedly using unauthorized samples of his music. Back in January, TMZ broke the news that he sued a long list of artists including Michael Jackson, Will Smith, Tupac Shakur and KRS-One claiming they stole his 1967 single "Different Strokes" without attributing him or paying for the sample.
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