Just two weeks after Henry Wayne Casey of K.C. and the Sunshine Band came out and accused the Black Eyed Peas of using samples from one of his songs without credit, another veteran artist has decided to actually bring a suit against them for the same offense.
George Clinton has filed a lawsuit against the Peas, UMG Recordings and Cherry Lane Music over the band's sampling of his song (Not Just) Knee Deep in a remix of the track Shut Up. It's not the first time Clinton's song has been sampled but no credit or compensation has been forthcoming.
(Not Just) Knee Deep was originally on the 1979 Funkadelic album Uncle Jam Wants You while Shut Up was originally on the Peas 2003 album Elephunk and was recently remixed with the Clinton sample used. While the big hit from that album was Where is the Love?, Shut Up, in its original form, did get released as a single and reached number 30 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart. (Not Just) Knee Deep, on the other hand, topped the R&B Singles chart.
The suit is asking for $150,000 per infringement of his copyright and an injunction against further distribution of the song.
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