More legal trouble has emerged for Lil Wayne as the New Orleans hitmaker is being sued by a man who contributed to his joint album with Birdman, Like Father, Like Son.
The copyright infringement lawsuit, which was filed Friday by Thomas Marasciullo in a Manhattan federal court, claims that Lil Wayne and Birdman’s label, Cash Money Records, arranged for Marasciullo to cut some “‘Italian-styled’ spoken word recordings” in 2006. The recordings, the suit noted, were later used on four songs on the joint project and five tracks on Birdman’s 2007 release, Stunna, without pay or permission.
According to Marasciullo, several short songs he says he wrote, recorded and copyrighted feature a man’s voice delivering mob-movie-flavored repartee. Among the tunes featuring the Florida resident were including “Loyalty” and “Respect.”
Released in 2006, Like Father, Like Son featured the hit single, “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy,” as well as “Respect.” The gold-selling album, which featured appearances from Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Tha Dogg Pound and T-Pain, debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, selling 176,000 copies. Birdman’s Stunna contained the popular Lil Wayne-assisted lead single, “Pop Bottles.”
The suit further stated that Marasciullo realized his work was being used when his daughter discovered his “Respect” while trying to buy a ringtone version of the hit Aretha Franklin song of the same name. When he demanded payment for his work, the lawsuit mentioned that Marasciullo’s son was fired from a recording engineer job at Cash Money. The Associated Press reports the label and various music distribution outlets are also being sued by Marasciullo, who seeks unspecified damages.
The new lawsuit comes amid troubling times for Lil Wayne, who pled guilty last week to attempted weapons possession from a 2007 incident where authorities stopped the rapper’s tour bus after a concert in New York. Lil Wayne faces a year in jail from that case.
The rapper is also mired in the fallout from being arrested last year during a routine stop at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint near Yuma, Arizona. In that case, Lil Wayne was charged with a string of felonies that included possession of a narcotic drug for sale, possession of dangerous drugs, misconduct involving weapons and possession of drug paraphernalia.
