A company founded by Tupac Shakur’s late mother is asking a Los Angeles judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging unpaid royalties from the rapper’s most iconic record.
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A company founded by Tupac Shakur’s late mother is fighting a lawsuit claiming unpaid royalties from some of the rapper’s most famous records, arguing the case stems from a misinterpretation of a long-term contract.
Amaru Entertainment Inc., founded by Afeni Shakur in 1997, asked a Los Angeles County judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Capucine Jackson, the widow of producer Johnny “Johnny J” Jackson. Jackson claims she and her company are owed royalties for music her husband produced for Shakur.
The lawsuit, first filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in October 2022, seeks damages for alleged breach of contract. A third amended complaint filed Nov. 19 added Arizona-based Klock Work Entertainment Corp. as a plaintiff. Klock Work was founded as an independent production company in 1995 by Johnny and Capucine Jackson during a period of rapid growth in hip-hop entrepreneurship.
The complaint alleges that Johnny J was a key creative force on Shakur’s albums, producing or co-producing tracks such as “How Do U Want It,” “Hit ‘Em Up,” and cuts from the album “All Eyez On Me.” In May 2001, he signed a producer agreement with Amaru, which governs his royalty rights related to master recordings featuring the rapper.
Jackson claims that whenever Shakur’s successors receive royalties from those recordings, she and Kroc Walker are entitled to a proportional share. Amaru disputes this interpretation.
In court papers filed Monday ahead of a March 19 hearing before Judge James I. Montgomery, Amaru’s attorneys argued that there was no triable issue because the agreement did not support Jackson’s claims. They noted that the 1999 and 2001 contracts only required Amaru to issue letters of instruction regarding royalties generated from sales or exploitation through Shakur’s distributors, Interscope Records or its licensees.
The dispute centers in part on royalties collected by SoundExchange, a nonprofit that started operating in 2003 and distributes digital performance royalties from online and satellite broadcasts. Amaru insists that SoundExchange is not covered by the agreement cited by Jackson, and that neither contract gives her the right to share in those digital performance royalties.
Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in September 1996 at the age of 25. Afeni Shakur continued his musical legacy through Amaru Entertainment until his death in 2016.
