Unreleased Recordings: Afeni Shakur Sues Daz Dillinger

Two weeks after Daz Dillinger himself took Death Row to court, he was hit with a lawsuit from another side. On Monday, August 27, 2001, Afeni Shakur filed a 13-count copyright infringement complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Named as defendants were Daz, whose real name is Delmar Arnaud, and his label DPG Records in Los Angeles. Billboard reported on it on August 31.

Tapes from the Death Row Era

According to the complaint, Daz possessed an unspecified number of original Tupac recordings that he had overseen as a producer at Death Row and planned to sell them without permission. In addition, since June he had allegedly been using the names “2Pac” and “Makaveli” on his label’s website, which are protected trademarks. Afeni’s attorney Ammar Kharouf pointed out that a Los Angeles probate court had designated her as co-administrator of the estate following Tupac’s death, including unreleased tapes. She sought an injunction and unspecified damages. Daz did not comment.

Settlement One Year Later

How the dispute ended was reported by Rolling Stone in 2026 in an article about a new lawsuit filed by Daz against the estate label: the parties settled the 2001 proceedings out of court the following year. The background to Daz’s own lawsuit is detailed in the report from August 9.