April 20, 1997

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The mother of slain rapper Tupac Shakur is suing Death Row Records for $17 million, claiming the hip-hop label failed to pay royalties and cheated Shakur out of millions of dollars.

The federal lawsuit filed Friday follows a $7.1 million lawsuit Death Row filed against Shakur's estate earlier this month, demanding reimbursement for money allegedly advanced to Shakur for cars, houses, jewelry and other expenditures, including recording and video costs.

Besides seeking unpaid royalties and repayment of disputed expense billings, the countersuit from Shakur's estate seeks to invalidate a handwritten 1995 contract Shakur signed with Death Row while in prison.

It also asks that 152 unreleased Shakur recordings, which his representatives cannot locate, be ordered into court-appointed receivership.

The suit is a response to "the deafening silence from Death Row," family attorney Richard Fischbein said Saturday.

The primary dispute between Afeni Shakur, the rapper's mother, and Death Row is over money made by "All Eyez on Me," a double album by Shakur released shortly before the rapper was gunned down last September in Las Vegas. Some 5 million copes were sold.

Shakur died with little more than $150,000 yet Death Row reaped more than $100 million from his music, Fischbein said.

"He was paid less than a million dollars as far as we can see," Fischbein said. "They've never opened the books so that we can see."

The company wrongly billed Shakur's account for other's expenses in a "pattern of fraud and deception involving millions of dollars," Fischbein said.

Named in the lawsuit were Death Row and its imprisoned president, Marion "Suge" Knight, who is serving a nine-year term for violating probation from a 1992 assault.

Two lawyers for Death Row, Ed Corey and David Kenner, did not return phone calls Saturday, but Kenner, who's also named in the lawsuit, on Friday denied any wrongdoing or mismanagement.

Citing the handwritten contract, Death Row claims Shakur's unreleased recordings are its property. The company also is seeking 20 percent of Shakur's earnings over the last 18 months as a management fee.

In a separate development, Shakur's mother got $5 million in advances from Death Row distributor Interscope Records after threatening to bar the release of her son's posthumous "Makaveli: The Don Killuminati" album. Released in October, it has sold more than a million copies.

Death Row has other troubles. Creditors claim the company owes them millions of dollars for goods and services. A $75 million lawsuit seeks to have the rap label put into receivership to protect its assets.

The company also is under federal investigation for alleged links to drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion.