DOCUMENT: Crime

Rapper Raps Dead Rapper

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Rapper Raps Dead Rapper

In a nifty little music industry beef, Public Enemy's Chuck D is suing the late Notorious B.I.G. and Sean "Puffy" Combs for improperly sampling from an old PE album. Chuck D (real name: Carleton Ridenhour) claims that B.I.G. (real name: Christopher Wallace) used the sample on a cut from his multiplatinum 1997 album "Life After Death." Wallacewas murdered last year in Los Angeles, so Ridenhour is suing his estate (and Combs-controlled firms) for more than $1 million. In this federal court complaint filed in New York, Ridenhour also claims to have been defamed by Wallace since the PE sample is heard in a song about the "methodology of selling crack cocaine." (7 pages)