Snoop Dogg, Biggie Estate, Diddy and Others Sued Over Sample on ‘Nasty Girl’ and ‘I Wanna Thank Ya’

A bevy of big hip-hop names including Snoop Dogg, Diddy and the estate of The Notorious B.I.G. are facing a new copyright lawsuit claiming two early aughts hits contain an uncleared funk sample.

The complaint, filed on Tuesday (July 14) and first obtained and reported by Billboard, is brought by a pair of composers who co-wrote the 1980 song “Skatin’” for Brazilian artist Deodato. They allege the instrumentals are sampled on both the 2004 Angie Stone and Snoop track “I Wanna Thank Ya,” which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, and “Nasty Girl,” a 2005 song off Biggie’s posthumous album Duets: The Final Chapter that featured Diddy and Nelly and peaked at No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100.

73-year-old David Bravo and 84-year-old Jean Albert Renaud allege the two songs, both produced by hip-hop hitmaker Jazze Pha, use “Skatin’” as the “complete musical backing track over which new vocal melodies and rap verses were composed.” Bravo and Renaud say they only recently discovered the samples, and they allege they never granted clearance or received any royalties.

“This case embodies a classic ‘David versus Goliath’ struggle,” reads the lawsuit. “Plaintiffs are independent, everyday creators seeking to recover their rightful compensation that has been unlawfully diverted to billion-dollar record labels, global music publishers, and international recording artists, producers and songwriters.”

Bravo and Renaud are bringing copyright infringement claims against Snoop, Diddy, Nelly, Pha, the estates of Stone and Biggie, Bad Boy Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and the publishing arms of all three major music companies. They’re also leveling breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty claims against Sony Music Publishing, which owns the “Skatin’” composition rights.

The songwriters allege that when they discovered the “Skatin’” samples two years ago, they alerted Sony and asked the major publisher to pursue legal action on their behalf. But according to the lawsuit, Sony “blatantly stonewalled” Bravo and Renaud because it also holds an interest in the “Nasty Girl” publishing.

“Choosing to protect its highly lucrative clients at the direct expense of its duties to plaintiffs, Sony Publishing acted in bad faith and deliberately aligned itself with the infringers,” the lawsuit says. “Sony Publishing’s refusal to advocate for the creators of the foundational backing track has forced plaintiffs to drain their life savings to bring this action themselves.”

According to the lawsuit, Bravo and Renaud signed over all the publishing copyrights to Kenya Music Inc., now controlled by Sony, as part of a 1980 songwriter agreement. This could potentially pose an issue for their ability to pursue the lawsuit, as the defendants might argue that they don’t have legal standing to pursue copyright claims without ownership interests.

Reps for Snoop, Diddy, Nelly, Pha, the Biggie estate and the various corporate defendants did not immediately return requests for comment on the lawsuit. The estate of Stone, who died in a car crash last year, could not be reached.