Afeni Shakur Sues Death Row for $17 Million

Original: “Tupac’s Mother Goes After Death Row” · MTV News · no byline · April 21, 1997

Citing the Associated Press, MTV reported in April 1997 on the largest lawsuit to date over Tupac’s estate. Afeni Shakur was seeking $17 million from Death Row Records and its incarcerated label head, Suge Knight. At the center of the dispute was All Eyez on Me, which according to the report had sold five million copies.

A Contract from a Cell and 152 Unreleased Songs

Family attorney Richard Fischbein calculated that Tupac had generated $100 million in record sales for the label, but had received less than a million himself. The lawsuit had two additional goals: the contract Tupac signed in prison in 1995 was to be declared null and void, and 152 unreleased songs were to be placed under court receivership.

Just a few weeks earlier, Death Row itself had gone on the offensive: the label had in turn sued the estate for $7.1 million-for alleged advances on houses, cars, jewelry, as well as studio and video costs.

In Federal Court: Numbers No One Verified at the Time

The lawsuit was filed on Friday, April 18, 1997, in federal court in Los Angeles. Variety summarized the allegation: Death Row had cheated Tupac out of millions owed to him from the sale of his albums. The figures, however, came from the complaint and from Fischbein; no one had verified them at the time.

The figure of “five million” must also be read with caution, as US industry statistics count each disc of a double album separately. According to XXL, All Eyez on Me had sold about 5.9 million copies in the US by 2011; in 2014, it went diamond.

Meeting in San Luis Obispo: Settlement Instead of a Trial

The case never went to trial. In the fall of 1997, the Los Angeles Times reported the results of a settlement: Afeni Shakur received the right to release roughly 100 of her son’s Death Row recordings after meeting Suge Knight at the prison in San Luis Obispo. The master tapes of All Eyez on Me and The Don Killuminati remained with Death Row. From these rights arose her label Amaru, which released the posthumous albums starting in November 1997.

The matter was not settled with that. Death Row filed for bankruptcy in 2006, the catalog changed hands several times-and in 2013, Afeni Shakur sued the owner at the time, Entertainment One, once again for royalties and the release of unreleased tapes.

Read more

• The same lawsuit on MTV’s news show
• The merchandise ruling of January 1997
• Afeni Shakur
• Suge Knight