Mike Tyson facing lawsuit over Jay-Z, DMX and Ja Rule song
A lawsuit has been filed against Mike Tyson over a Jay-Z, DMX and Ja Rule song. The boxing legend was sued on August 7th for using ‘Murdergram’ in an Instagram video without permission.
Iron Mike allegedly used the song from the Streets Is Watching soundtrack to promote his fight with Jake Paul.
Ty Fyffe, the song’s producer and co-writer, brought the claims in a legal complaint. According to Billboard, Jay, Ja, and DMX’s representatives are not involved in the suit.
The video, just over 30 seconds long, showed Tyson training for his upcoming fight with Paul, which he lost unanimously.
In the caption of the since-deleted post, he wrote, “You know what time it is #PaulTyson.” Despite no longer being on his Instagram account, Fyffe included screenshots in the legal filing.
The complaint reads, “Neither plaintiff nor any of his representatives granted defendant Tyson permission to use the song title ‘Murdergram’ to promote his boxing match with Jake Paul. By listing the song title ‘Murdergram’ on his Instagram post, defendant Tyson misled viewers to believe that plaintiff endorsed, or was affiliated or associated with, him and/or his participation in the match.”
Fyffe alleges that the song’s use contributed to the fight being watched by over 100million people. Fyffe wants royalties for using the track and a portion of Tyson’s $20million pay cheque.
“Defendant Tyson’s conduct was intentional, wilful and with full knowledge of plaintiff’s copyright in the song,” the documents continue. “As a consequence of defendant Tyson’s infringement, plaintiff has suffered, and will continue to suffer, economic losses and damage to his copyright in the song.”
‘Murdergram’ was part of the Streets Is Watching album, released through Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam in 1998. Jay-Z executive produced the project, which featured contributions from Memphis Bleek, MOP, NORE, and others, and debuted at number 27 on the Billboard 200.