Supreme Court Refuses to Play by Ja Rules
Ja Rule’s old record label won’t be getting any help from the highest court in the land.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear the ongoing case between indie label TVT Records and Universal Music Group’s Island Def Jam, which originally was ordered to shell out millions in damages to TVT over a copyright violations lawsuit.
In May 2003, TVT was handed a $132 million judgment after it sued Def Jam, claiming that the larger label left the smaller company in financial shambles when it blocked the release of an album Ja Rule’s Cash Money Click group recorded in 2001 for TVT, where the Pain Is Love rapper got his start.
TVT President Steve Gottlieb filed a lawsuit against Def Jam alleging copyright infringement and fraud and was awarded both $24 million in compensation for the album and costs involved and $108 million in punitive damages, which made Def Jam particularly hot under the collar.
A U.S. District Court judge later slashed the punitive award to $54 million–still plenty of bling to smile about, though.
Last year, however, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals obliterated the original verdict, reducing the judgment to $126,720 in compensatory damages–a “decisive victory” from Def Jam’s perspective, but TVT vowed to fight on. (The indie company still managed to look on the bright side–winning any money at all meant that Def Jam had violated an agreement, according to TVT’s legal camp.)
So, the little guy continued to fight, but with the Supreme Court declining to hear the case (i.e. consider overturning what the New York appeals court did), it remains to be seen if anything else can be done.
Lyor Cohen, the former Def Jam chairman whom Gottlieb and TVT were swinging for, became chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group in 2004.
Ja Rule (real name Jeffrey Atkins) signed with Def Jam in 1998 with Gottlieb’s blessing and released his first solo album, Venni Vetti Vecci, the following year. He’s been busy lately stirring up his own high-profile feuds, flinging barb-laced lyrics at 50 Cent and G-Unit on the 2006 Internet track “21 Gunz” in response to 50 Cent’s 2003 debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which contained a number of insults directed at Ja Rule and Def Jam’s Murder Inc. label.
50 Cent then responded to “21 Gunz” with the unambiguously titled “Return of Ja Fool.”
Source; E! Online
