Blues
musician Syl Johnson recently filed a lawsuit against the estate of the
late Tupac Shakur and others for apparently not being paid royalties
from the sampling of his songs.

Johnson (real name Sylvester Thompson), who performed with acts
like Junior Wells and Howlin’ Wolf in his day, along with his Syl-Zel Music and Twilight Records
is alleging that he has not been compensated for several songs that
have sampled his work. Some  of the songs that he is suing for are Tupac‘s
“Peep Game,” Michael Jackson‘s “Blood On The Dance Floor” and Will Smith‘s
“Who Stole The DJ.” He claims that all three of the songs sampled
his 1967 song “Different Strokes” and, despite the high profiles of all
of the aforementioned artists, that he has not been paid any royalties
from the tracks.

The suit, which seeks an unspecified amount in damages, also names KRS One and his Boogie Down Productions, Peedi Crakk, Young Chris, N.W.A., Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Universal Publishing as defendants for also allegedly sampling the artist’s work without compensation. No representatives from any of the defendants named in the case have officially responded to the suit.