Still one of the most popular rap songs to get a crowd buzzing, "Gold Digger" is now in the news for other reasons.
The Ray Charles-themed song which featured Jamie Foxx (West sampled "I Got A Woman") apparently had another sample in it that wasn't cleared by West, according MTV and TMZ.
The No. 1 hit song allegedly sampled lyrics from David Pryor, who was in the 70's group Thunder and Lightning and passed away in 2006. His family has now filed a suit on his behalf.
The song involved in the lawsuit is called "Bumpin' Bus Stop" in which Pryor sings "Get down" three times in a row.
The suit, filed by Trena Steward and Lorenzo Pryor who each own one-quarter of the song, claim that Wests' lyrics "Get down girl, go 'head, get down," illegally recited 13 seconds of their fathers lyrics.
The pair, according to MTV, have asked a judge to stop the sale of the 2005 song and provide them with "millions of dollars" in damages.
The pair also claim West "systematically and willfully refused to clear samples of the plaintiffs' original, copyrighted work in order to gain a commercial profit and to avoid paying and crediting the author."
AllHipHop.com learned the RICO/copyright lawsuit is going after various record labels as well.
They claim labels such as Roc-A-Fella, Bad Boy, Stone Throw, The Island Def Jam Music Group and others have engaged in a 15-year "illegal copyright infringement scheme and criminal enterprise involving the unauthorized, willful sampling of plaintiffs original copyrighted music on a massive scale."
Click here for the official case documents.
