A company formed by the late mother of Tupac Shakur is seeking dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the widow of a musician and producer who worked with the slain rapper, in which the widow alleges she is being denied royalty payments.
Capucine Jackson, the widow of Johnny Lee Jackson, is seeking compensatory damages in her breach-of-contract action against Amaru Entertainment Inc. Originally filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in October 2022, a third amended complaint was brought Nov. 19 of this year that added Arizona-based Klock Work Entertainment Corp. as a plaintiff.
The Jackson couple formed Klock Work in Los Angeles in 1995 with the purpose of joining the growing number of independent production companies in the rap music industry. Amaru Entertainment is the record label founded by Shakur’s mother, the late Afeni Shakur, in 1997.
Johnny Jackson, also known as Johnny J, worked with Shakur on many of his well-known recordings, including “How Do U Want It,” “Hit ‘Em Up” and “All Eyez On Me,” the suit states. He signed a producer agreement with Amaru in May 2001 that dealt with all the master recordings on which he worked with the rapper and outlined his royalty rights, the suit states.
Jackson’ contends that every time Shakur’s successors are paid royalties in connection with his released masters, she and Klock Work are entitled to their portion of the compensation.
But on Monday, Amaru’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge James I. Montgomery in advance of a March 19 hearing in which they contend Jackson’s case should be dismissed for a lack of triable issues.
The Amaru lawyers state in their pleadings that the bottom line of Jackson’s breach of contract claim are two agreements entered into in 1999 and 2001 that obligate Amaru to issue a letter of direction to SoundExchange, directing it to pay Jackson a share of digital performance royalties that SoundExchange has collected on Amaru’s behalf since 2003.
SoundExchange is a nonprofit performing rights organization formed in 2003 that collects digital performance royalties from digital radio companies when they license and use master recordings, then distributes the royalties to artists and copyright owners who obtain letters of direction from the featured artists or their representatives.
But Jackson’s claim ignores that both of those agreements unambiguously provide that the plaintiff is only entitled to a royalty on sales and exploitations of the recordings by Shakur’s distributor, Interscope, or its licensees, which does not include SoundExchange, according to Amaru’s attorneys’ court papers.
Contrary to Jackson’s claim, neither the 1999 producer agreement nor the global contract entitle her to a share of Amaru’s digital performance royalties collected by SoundExchange, the Amaru lawyers’ further state in their court papers.
Shakur, then 25, died Sept. 13, 1996, six days after being shot in a drive-by incident in Las Vegas. Amaru Entertainment was founded in 1997 by the singer’s mother, Afeni Shakur, who herself died in 2016 at age 69.