Cypress Hill Slapped With $29 Mil Sample Lawsuit

by Kevin on October 18, 2008

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Cypress Hill is being sued for $29 million due to a sample they used on their 1993 album Black Sunday. Blues singer, Syl Johnson filed a lawsuit against the hip hop group claiming the music from his 1969 record “Is It Because I’m Black” was used without permission on Cypress Hill’s “Lock Down (Interlude).” Despite the track being over 15 years-old and not using the actual lyrics from the song, Johnson has decided to sue the group plus a number of record and publishing companies for the brief soundbite.

Apparently Syl Johnson has a history of suing artists for unauthorized samples of his music.  Earilier this year he sued a long list of people including Michael Jackson, 2Pac, Will Smith, and KRS-One claiming they stole his 1967 single “Different Strokes” without attributing him or paying for the sample. 

The main problem I have with this is that Cypress Hill used the sample for an interlude.  It’s not like it was a hit song that made a ton of money.  How did Syl come up with the $29 mil figure?

Cypress Hill – “Lock Down”

Syl Johnson – “Is It Because I’m Black?”

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  • http://www.youtube.com/CenzoDaKillah Cenzo

    how crazy is that?! but he won’t get the 29 mil. never ever. how redicilous would that be? but, to be honest, how dumb is it not to pay for a sample?…

  • Sean Deez

    goddamn…

    Its dangerous for producers out there to sample it seems these days. A lot of older artist or their companies are just waiting for an artist to come out and make it big so they can chomp down on their success. Funny enough, I’ve heard a lot of stories of Producers just going flat out broke because of this problem

  • http://kevinnottingham.com Kevin

    I can’t say it enough… clear your samples.

  • http://myspace.com/tokyocigarstyle Tokyo Cigar

    DAAAAAAAAAAAMN SON! $29 million for an interlude thats over 15 years old, come on.

    I’m glad that apart from my “kill the violator” album and some joints i did for the 90′s remix contest that i dont sample nothing but small vocal clips so i dont have to worry bout no wild shit like this.

    Cats really should clear their joints but $29 million is CRAZY. Yo Syl LET MUGGS LIVE. We need cats like him in the game that continue that boom bap tradition.

  • trapperjohnmd

    I guess the Wu paid for that sample for Hollow Bones off of the W album

  • http://kevinnottingham.com Thomas

    Rza and other wu producers have sampled Sly a lot. They must have paid.

  • http://www.myspace.com/s2ita S.2

    Established artists should clear their samples, but u can’t expect some like me to be clearing samples. Its ridiculous. If I ever got sued I’d have nothing to give them lol. As if someone like me is going to go thru the long and expensive process of clearing a sample, just so that u can put it up on ur myspace or soundclick page or whatever. Hopefully it never gets to that point.

  • http://www.youtube.com/CenzoDaKillah Cenzo

    chop them samples, so that the artists won’t notice that you used their song ;) …i heard there are also special lawyers for searching uncleared samples. its crazy

  • Tommylux

    I don’t think producers who just put up stuff here and there on the net need to worry about being hit with lawsuits. Also, seems like the laws not as strict on that here in Europe as in the US.

    As for Syl, I got mad respect for the man as an artist, but on this one’s he’s just being an asshole. My guess is man must be in desperate need of money. But things like this make me regret I even bought any of his records

  • http://midimarc.blogspot.com Marcum

    Syl Johnson is from the time where alot of artist were screwed out of a lot of money. He’s also one of the folks that doesn’t mind folks sampling…as long as he gets paid along with recognition. Put yourself in his shoes….his is not at all in the wrong in this situation. The crazy thing is that more than likely this is a mistake the record label made.

  • jeff

    at first when i read this, i was like whoa 29 million!!!! thats too extreme, then i read he sued Michael jackson, will smith….what!!!! i could only imagine how much he charged mj?…….someone needs money…

  • http://www.TheNerdySouth.com Willie Evans Jr

    Chop up your your veggies before you Sautee them plates! You can’t take credit for growin’ that green pepper but the chicken flautas is your creation mayne!

  • http://myspace.com/tokyocigarstyle Tokyo Cigar

    Yo Willie Evans crazy cooking metaphor LMFAO

    I was just listenting to Street Level by the Beatnuts and it’s sad that lawsuits like this prevent albums like that from getting made on a more mainstream level today.

  • AVENGER XL

    This is what he is doing. He is throwing out a ridiculous amount of money to get a settlement out of court or something to that effect. Dude knows cypress hill don’t have 29 million dollars even with their stoner rap legendary status they weren’t doing Nelly, TI, 50 numbers. So he is trying to set a crazy standard to push the issue into money kinda like on the movie Friday, when the dude was like I want 1 million dollars but I will settle out of court for 25 dollars. It is sad that SYL has to resourt to ish like this to get money but in the industry you need to save all the money you can because when it is over it is over.

  • Nate

    Marcum got it dead on. Syl wasn’t pulling in the cheese the way artists do now so he has to get his. Start high so they can talk you down.

    &… it isn’t Muggs job to clear samples. Or Sen’s or B-Real’s. The label is supposed to handle that. Truth is, Muggs et al probably never knew the sample wasn’t cleared.

  • bruce_d

    rza killed this shit

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  • KGM

    It’s amusing how in these cases the fans always defend the rapper. Why shouldn’t Sly get paid for his work? The guy writes a tune and someone else takes it, records it and claims it as their own…that’s clearly copyright infringment. How many others have been “sampled” without knowing it? So it’s an old song. Big deal. Copyright is 70 years after death. If you want to call yourself a musician then learn to be one. There’s more to it then listening to a Fleetwood Mac song and rewriting the lyrics. Most of these rap “artists” must have gone to the weird al yankovic school of song writing. My favorite excuse I hear is “we’re paying tribute to the original artist”. Really? With no credit or mention of the person at all? No talent hacks. They belong in the comedy section of the record store.

  • Tavis Forman

    Cypress not only sampled the song, they changed the name of the composition and filed a copyright as though they wrote the composition, they didn’t not add anything new, when Sony was approached about the sample, they purchase a license from one of the old white slave masters in the record business who was used to exploiting poor black artist in 60′s, all Cypress needed to was pay not try to take the composition, prior to filing the instant suit Syl attempted to get the Sound Recording. Sony spent $450,000 in legal fees, they could have offer a portion of that to settle the case

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