There were plenty of beefs in hip-hop back in the day, but most of them were geography-based. One modern beef that hip-hop fans of 25 years ago probably didn't see coming is Dr. Dre's lawsuit against Death Row Records, a label he confounded and that released both his N.W.A. and solo albums.
Dre's lawsuit claims that he's owed $3 million in unpaid royalties from the label. Legal documents break the demands down into several portions: $676 thousand for unpaid mechanical royalties, $1.2 million for artist-producer royalties, and $1.179 million for digital sales.
Death Row has fallen on hard times since being one of the biggest labels in hip-hop during the early '90s. The company applied for bankruptcy during 2006, but it was bought out for $18 million by WIDEawake Entertainment instead. If Dre is able to win his case against the label, it might open a floodgate of other performers claiming to be owed royalties by Death Row. Of course, none of them would be able to claim nearly as much in compensation as Dre, who produced on a majority of the label's releases until his departure in 1996.
Dre's not exactly hurting for money however: Forbes listed him as the third highest-earning figure in hip-hop, bringing in $40 million during 2013, between his music and production work, not to mention a healthy sum for his name being on Beats headphones. We're sure he would tell us the Death Row lawsuit is more about the principle of the thing.
