Three 6 Mafia’s Juicy J and DJ Paul are being sued for copyright infringement by a group of Memphis artists, TMZ reports and Pitchfork can confirm via court documents. The complaint was filed yesterday (March 2) in a Tennessee federal court by attorney Bradley Eiseman, who’s representing the plaintiffs Kingpin Skinny Pimp, Slicc, MC Mack, Lil Ced, Joe the CEO, T-Rock, DJ Zirk, and Carnomas LaToya Manning, who helms the estate of the late Koopsta Knicca.
In the lawsuit, the Memphis artists outline numerous Three 6 Mafia recordings to which they claim to have contributed without being awarded ownership or compensation. Eiseman and the plaintiffs claim that Juicy J and DJ Paul committed “over 150 independent acts of copyright infringement from more than 100 individual sound recordings.”
A document submitted with the lawsuit lists 99 tracks on which the plaintiffs say they worked. Many of the entries are for lyrical contributions from Koopsta Knicca, who was a longtime member of Three 6 Mafia. For example, his estate is seeking ownership for his alleged lyrical contributions to “Tear da Club Up ’97” and “Break da Law ’95.” The Memphis artists are asking for $150,000 per recording on the document.
Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Juicy J and DJ Paul, as well as Bradley Eiseman for further comment and information.