Rappers fight over ownership of "Back That Ass Up"

[Fenris]

5th Circuit Rules in Rappers' Battle Over Phrase 'Back That Ass Up'
John Council
Texas Lawyer
01-25-2005

As often happens in the hip-hop world, two rappers became embroiled in a dispute over who owned the rights to a song that utilized a popular phrase. And it took the musical ear of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to settle the matter.

Positive Black Talk Inc., et al. v. Cash Money Records, et al. plunged the conservative appellate court into the world of booming bass lines and popular street slang.

Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King, who wrote the opinion, boiled the case down to a dispute between Louisiana rappers Juvenile and D.J. Jubilee over who owned the rights to a song "that included the poetic four-word phrase 'back that ass up.'"

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http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1106573712927

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. The Founding Fathers ...

would have suggested that they cap each other.

[coloradodem2005]

2. This is almost funny.

It just seems so ridiculous to me. I don't know what to make of it.

[Lex]

3. copyright is serious stuff

because there is money to be made . . .

[Shakespeare]

4. Oh, man--I thought this was going to be an Onion article, like this one:

National Funk Congress Deadlocked on "Get up," "Get Down"

CHOCOLATE CITY—After months of ceaseless debate, including last week's record 76-hour filibuster slap-bass solo from Senate Rubber Band Minority Leader Bootsy Collins (D-OH), the National Funk Congress is no closer to resolving its deadlock over the controversial "get up/get down" issue, insiders reported Monday.

"Get up-uh, get on up! Get up-uh, get on up!" shouted Getuplican Party supporters on the steps of the Capitol as the debate, as well as a massive 14-piece instrumental jam, raged within. The pro-up-getting demonstrators' chants were nearly drowned out by those of a nearby group of jungle-boogie Downocrats, who called upon all citizens to "Get down, get down!"

The bitter "get up/get down" battle, which has polarized the nation's funk community, is part of a long-running battle between the two factions, rooted in more than 35 years of conflict over the direction in which the American people should shake it.

"The time has come to face facts: To move forward, we've got to get on up, and stay on the scene, like a sex machine," said Brick House Majority Leader James Brown (G-GA), one of getting on up's most vocal supporters. "Say it loud: Only when we have gotten up offa that thing will we, as a nation, finally get back on the good foot."

http://sadlyno.com/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=505

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