Last month, rapper Ghostface Killah [click to read] won a lawsuit judgment against Wu-Tang Productions and his clansmen RZA [click to read] for a 2005 case concerning unpaid royalties. The due payment, with costs, is estimated at $158,000.
Stating the ruling has yet to be finalized as he’s appealed the court decision, RZA told AllHipHop.com, “I’m not appealing because I don’t want to pay Ghost something that I owe him. Anything I owe him I would give him. He wouldn’t have to go through the courts to get it from me.”
Explaining his side of the argument, he continued, “I have a legal contract with Wu-Tang Productions, matter of fact all of us do for 50% of what we get. We all signed that. We signed that years ago and maybe Ghost feels differently now, and I can respect that. But when it comes to the beats of Hip Hop, how it carries on to this day is that the producer gets 50% of the composition, and the lyricist, no matter how many, gets the other 50%.”
Believing the lawsuit is coming from outside players and not Ghost himself, RZA added, “Ghost’s catalogue is his catalogue, and now they want to try to get into our catalogue. They’re trying through him. So because these n***as are telling you ‘yo, you should’ve gotten this,’ you’re going to listen to them [after] all the years we’ve been together? That’s improper.”
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The full piece can be read [here].
