A New Orleans producer has filed a lawsuit against Drake and fellow hometown artist Big Freedia, alleging that the pair stole one of his tracks for the “Nice For What” track. Sam Skully says a track he produced in 2000 was lifted for the Canadian superstar’s smash, and he’s also going after Drake over “In My Feelings” as well.
Samuel Nicholas III — who goes by Sam Skully — is suing the rappers claiming they used his beat for their hit collab, “In My Feelings.” He also claims Drake stole another one of his beats for his wildly successful track, “Nice For What”
According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Sam Skully claims Drake and Big Freedia sampled a portion of his 2000 track, “Roll Call,” but they never asked for permission and never forked over any dough.
In the docs, Sam Skully claims he published the beat on a CD he released in New Orleans way back in 2000, but says he didn’t know his work had been stolen until years later … when Drake and Big Freedia released songs that started climbing the charts.
Skully is also going after all involved record labels and other entities connected to the songs and seeks unspecified damages.
A soul singer from the ’60s is angling for a big payday after bringing a lawsuit against Virginia producer Timbaland for sampling one of his tracks for a pair of songs. Ernie Hines filed a $2 million lawsuit against Timbaland, who used the original recording to create songs for Jay-Z and Ginuwine separately.
81-year-old Ernie Hines filed a lawsuit, obtained by The Blast, against Jay-Z, Timbaland, Roc-A-Fella Records, Def Jam Recordings, Universal Music Group and Sony Music.
Hines, a soul musician from Jackson, Mississippi, says he’s the co-author and composer of the 1969 song, “Help Me,” which was sampled on both Jay-Z’s “Paper Chase” from the Hard Knock Life album, and Ginuwine’s 1999 song, “Toe 2 Toe.”
Timbaland produced both tracks, and the document notes that “Toe 2 Toe” has sold over “2 million copies.”
Hines’ attorney, Christopher Brown, writes that his client is a “senior citizen, does not listen to rap music and was unaware” that the songs contained his music and composition.
Thus far, it appears that Timbaland has not publicly responded to Hines’ lawsuit claims.
Legendary producer, rapper, and DJ Pete Rock helped cement a culture of Instrumental Hip-Hop releases. Since the first volume of Petestrumentals, the Mount Vernon, New Yorker helped shine a light on cohesive album-making without MCs on the track.
The first Petestrumentals, released in 2001, followed the 1990s where Pete Rock made some of his most iconic beats. This period includes work with Nas, Heavy D & The Boyz, Run-D.M.C., and Public Enemy, in addition to his group, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth.
This week, Pete revealed that some of the beats from that very era are part of an upcoming instrumental release. P.R. revealed that the tracks are from between 1990 and 1998, and are all compositions that went unused. Additionally, Beat Junkies and JayLib member J. Rocc will provide scratches on the 2019 compilation. It will be dedicated to Pete’s longtime sampler, Return Of The SP1200.
In the same Instagram post, Pete revealed that he is producing an album for Brooklyn, New York veteran Skyzoo. Previously, outside of C.L. Smooth, Pete has produced full projects for InI, Smif-n-Wessun, and Smoke DZA. He last released Don’t Smoke Rock with DZA in 2015. In the last year, the producer worked with Kool G Rap & Spesh, Apathy, Westside Gunn, and Conway The Machine.
Subscribe to AFH TV for several rare interviews with Rock, as well as a Pete and C.L. concert performance.
Legendary producer, rapper, and DJ Pete Rock helped cement a culture of Instrumental Hip-Hop releases. Since the first volume of Petestrumentals, the Mount Vernon, New Yorker helped shine a light on cohesive album-making without MCs on the track.
The first Petestrumentals, released in 2001, followed the 1990s where Pete Rock made some of his most iconic beats. This period includes work with Nas, Heavy D & The Boyz, Run-D.M.C., and Public Enemy, in addition to his group, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth.
This week, Pete revealed that some of the beats from that very era are part of an upcoming instrumental release. P.R. revealed that the tracks are from between 1990 and 1998, and are all compositions that went unused. Additionally, Beat Junkies and JayLib member J. Rocc will provide scratches on the 2019 compilation. It will be dedicated to Pete’s longtime sampler, Return Of The SP1200.
In the same Instagram post, Pete revealed that he is producing an album for Brooklyn, New York veteran Skyzoo. Previously, outside of C.L. Smooth, Pete has produced full projects for InI, Smif-n-Wessun, and Smoke DZA. He last released Don’t Smoke Rock with DZA in 2015. In the last year, the producer worked with Kool G Rap & Spesh, Apathy, Westside Gunn, and Conway The Machine.
If the debate for the King of R&B is up for grabs, followers of the late great James Brown can rest easy, as his position among the greatest to ever do it, is secure as a Master padlock. Known indelibly as the “Godfather of Soul Music,” Brown’s career covered successive generations that stretched from chitlin circuit pit-stops in the ’60s, through his own Funk era and ultimately, the birth of Hip-Hop. In the Netflix original documentary, Mr. Dynamite: The Rise Of James Brown, the life and times of the oft referred “hardest working man in show business,” is examined fully. Questlove, Chuck D, Nelson George, Greg Tate, and others appear in the doc’.
It is common knowledge that Brown’s influence on Hip-Hop has been acknowledged and celebrated through countless samples – “Funky Drummer” being the most popular – but who knew Brown dipped into the sampling pool himself?
As it turns out, Brown’s saxophonist and bandleader, Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis, was called into James’ dressing room one night after a thunderous performance in the summer of 1967. Never formally trained to read music, Brown explained to Ellis that he had something in his head he needed to be transformed into song.
“I started putting notations to his grunts,” Ellis remembers with a hearty laugh at the 57:00-mark of the film, “which came out to be the bass line of ‘Cold Sweat.’”
Ellis goes on to explain that he had been listening to Miles Davis’ “So What,” which “popped up” while he was developing the track that would eventually become “Cold Sweat.”
“So I took that [dee dumph] part and repeated it over and over,” Ellis explains. “Then we added a very important guitar part, contrasting all of that – which is funky all by itself.”
An unquestionable masterpiece, “Cold Sweat” has been cited, by some (including in George’s The Death Of Rhythm & Blues) as the first true Funk song for all its moving parts. Aside from Brown’s grunts that laid the groundwork for the beat, the finished track borrowed from his previously-released “I Don’t Care” in 1962. Moreover, it incorporated Brown’s signature screams and solos from Maceo Parker on sax, and Clyde Stubblefield on drums.
“I didn’t write it to be so monumental,” Ellis confesses, “but my Jazz influence was creeping into his R&B, so the combination of the two is where the Funk came from.”
During the late 70s, when Brown was said to be losing a step, his Funk music was hot as ever in the Hip-Hop community and among DJs. Albums like Get On The Good Foot and Sex Machine were in heavy rotation, while “Give It Up Or Turn It Loose” provided breaks that proved to be something of a goldmine. But it was the unlikely “Funky Drummer” that catapulted “Mr. Please Please” to un-chartered territory.
For the record, the actual Funky Drummer was not very fond of the tune. “I hate that song,” the late Clyde Stubblefield affirms in the doc. “We all was so tired and didn’t even want to record. So I started playing just the drum pattern. Brown liked it. We recorded it, and it came out ‘Funky Drummer.’”
#BonusBeat: The trailer for Mr. Dynamite: The Rise Of JamesBrown:
If the debate for the King of R&B is up for grabs, followers of the late great James Brown can rest easy, as his position among the greatest to ever do it, is secure as a Master padlock. Known indelibly as the “Godfather of Soul Music,” Brown’s career covered successive generations that stretched from chitlin circuit pit-stops in the ’60s, through his own Funk era and ultimately, the birth of Hip-Hop. In the Netflix original documentary, Mr. Dynamite: The Rise Of James Brown, the life and times of the oft referred “hardest working man in show business,” is examined fully. Questlove, Chuck D, Nelson George, Greg Tate, and others appear in the doc’.
It is common knowledge that Brown’s influence on Hip-Hop has been acknowledged and celebrated through countless samples – “Funky Drummer” being the most popular – but who knew Brown dipped into the sampling pool himself?
As it turns out, Brown’s saxophonist and bandleader, Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis, was called into James’ dressing room one night after a thunderous performance in the summer of 1967. Never formally trained to read music, Brown explained to Ellis that he had something in his head he needed to be transformed into song.
“I started putting notations to his grunts,” Ellis remembers with a hearty laugh at the 57:00-mark of the film, “which came out to be the bass line of ‘Cold Sweat.’”
Ellis goes on to explain that he had been listening to Miles Davis’ “So What,” which “popped up” while he was developing the track that would eventually become “Cold Sweat.”
“So I took that [dee dumph] part and repeated it over and over,” Ellis explains. “Then we added a very important guitar part, contrasting all of that – which is funky all by itself.”
An unquestionable masterpiece, “Cold Sweat” has been cited, by some (including in George’s The Death Of Rhythm & Blues) as the first true Funk song for all its moving parts. Aside from Brown’s grunts that laid the groundwork for the beat, the finished track borrowed from his previously-released “I Don’t Care” in 1962. Moreover, it incorporated Brown’s signature screams and solos from Maceo Parker on sax, and Clyde Stubblefield on drums.
“I didn’t write it to be so monumental,” Ellis confesses, “but my Jazz influence was creeping into his R&B, so the combination of the two is where the Funk came from.”
During the late 70s, when Brown was said to be losing a step, his Funk music was hot as ever in the Hip-Hop community and among DJs. Albums like Get On The Good Foot and Sex Machine were in heavy rotation, while “Give It Up Or Turn It Loose” provided breaks that proved to be something of a goldmine. But it was the unlikely “Funky Drummer” that catapulted “Mr. Please Please” to un-chartered territory.
For the record, the actual Funky Drummer was not very fond of the tune. “I hate that song,” the late Clyde Stubblefield affirms in the doc. “We all was so tired and didn’t even want to record. So I started playing just the drum pattern. Brown liked it. We recorded it, and it came out ‘Funky Drummer.’”
This will be my 1st release of 2019. The Return Of The SP1200 instrumental lp with beats from like 1990-97-98 i never used. The rejects or just beats that i never did nothing with. Gonna be variations of the way i do instrumental albums 
COMING SOON!!! All scratches and excerpts by the beat junkie himself @jrocc210 who has done a wonderful job 
HAPPY NEW YEAR 
#peterockandthesoulbrothers