Jay-Z and Timbaland Hit with $2million Copyright Infringement Suit

Jay-Z and Timbaland are being faced with a high cost copyright infringement lawsuit over the sampling of artist Earnie Hines’ composition, “Let Me Put Out the Flame”.

The 81 year old soul artist has listed Roc-A-Fella Records, Timbaland, Sony Music and Hov in the $2million suit in which he will be suing for damages. In the suit, Hines’ team has stated the 1969 track “Help Me” was sampled and used on Jay-Z’s 1998 song “Paper Chase” . Additionally, Timbaland also sampled from the “Paper Chase” song for Ginuwine’s 1999 hit single, “Toe 2 Toe,” which sold over 2 million copies. The 81 year old claims that due to his old age, he does not listen to rap music and was unaware of the Jay-Z track that was released 20 years ago.

Both Jay-Z and Timbaland failed to ask for the soul artists permssion to sample his song before either track was released. In line with this, Hine is suing both the artists and their record labels.

This isn’t the first time the duo have been faced with a copyright infringement lawsuit. In 2007, Osama Fahmy filed a suit claiming the rapper and producer illegally use a sample of his late uncle’s song in “Big Pimpin.” The case was dismissed in 2016.

Hines, is expecting to get at least $2 million from the suit.

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