(EXCLUSIVE) Sir Mix-A-Lot Wins Legal Battle Over Nicki Minaj’s Royalties

The two started working on music with Ford as the DJ in the tracks and he even worked on the rappers debut album including the hit song “Baby Got Back”. He claimed over the years he continued to work with Sir Mix A-Lot and even toured with him on occasions. However, after 7 years of working together they ceased working together.

Sir Mix A Lot

Ford explained that he never had a written agreement with the rapper for their work. He claims that he was shocked to find out that Sir Mix A-Lot obtained copyrights to all the songs and said he was the sole artist who created the music.

The lawsuit said that recently “Baby Got Back” was sampled in Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda and it caused him to investigate why he wasn’t asked for permission for the song to be used. His investigation lead him to the copyrights that Sir Mix A-Lot filed that didn’t include his name. He filed suit, demanding all accounting of profits Sir Mix-A-Lot made from the songs he worked on with him and all records for money he made by sampling hit hit song to Nicki Minaj.

Then, Six Mix-A-Lot fired back at Ford’s legal battle over allegedly unpaid royalties claiming he isn’t owed a dime for the hit song “Baby Got Back”, along with the various other songs he claimed to work on and doesn’t deserve a cut of the profits from Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda”.

The rapper explained that all copyrights he registered are valid and list him as the author NOT Ford and legally he says Ford only had 5 years after the copyright was registered to contest it which he didn’t. He points out he won a Grammy for the ‘Baby Got Back” in 1993 and there is no way Ford could not have know about not being listed on the copyright until last year.

Lastly, he said that his former music partner never signed any agreement with him about royalties or payment for songs he worked on. He demanded the entire lawsuit be thrown out and the court order he doesn’t have to hand over any profits from his song or from the sampling in Nicki Minaj’s hit track

Then on September 11th, the federal court judge came back with his decision and sided with Sir Mix-A-Lot. The judge explains he isn’t buying Ford’s claim he didn’t know he wasn’t listed on the copyrights for the hit songs for decades. Further, he notes that the man failed to show any evidence that he provided anything substantial to the creation of “Baby Got Back” and therefore he cannot claim money from the royalties of Nicki Minaj’s hit song. The judge dismissed the entire case and awarded Sir Mix-A-Lot’s ex-musical partner NOTHING from his complaint.

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