Bass Brothers File Lawsuit Against Aftermath

[,-,'-{Bar}-',-,]

Mark and Jeff Bass, the Detroit brothers responsible for discovering Eminem, have filed a lawsuit against Aftermath, Interscope and Dr. Dre’s Ary Inc., claiming the companies have failed to pay millions of dollars in royalties.



The Bass brothers’ Michigan-based F.B.T. Productions, along with Em2M LLC, claim that the labels have failed to pay at least $1 million dollars in back royalties, from master recordings of the musical performances by Eminem.



Em2M is owned by Joel Martin, who also operates Eminem’s publishing company, 8 Mile Style. F.B.T. signed Eminem to an exclusive artist’s recording agreement in 1995.



Three years later, F.B.T. signed an agreement with Aftermath Entertainment, agreeing to furnish Aftermath the exclusive services of Eminem.



Eminem also signed an agreement acknowledging and approving the deal between F.B.T. and Aftermath, in order for Dr. Dre to obtain Eminem’s exclusive services.



In order for the rapper to have a direct deal with Aftermath, F.B.T. assigned all the rights and responsibility of their original agreement to Eminem.



The rapper then assumed all of F.B.T.’s obligations to Aftermath and Aftermath then assumed all of F.B.T.’s obligations to Eminem.



The lawsuit claims that all parties agreed that F.B.T. would remain an income participant in all future releases by Eminem and that royalties earned from Eminem’s releases would be paid to F.B.T., Martin’s Em2M and Eminem.



The Michigan-based companies claim that the labels erroneously charged certain productions costs and other expenses to them, when they should have been billed directly to Eminem.



The errors, which the lawsuit states have been acknowledging by the labels, resulted in an underpayment in millions of dollars in royalties to their companies.



The Bass Brothers, who are being represented by Los Angeles based attorneys Paul H. Duvall and Mark Block, seek an undisclosed amount in damages that could be determined by a jury, if the case goes to trial.

From: http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archi ... 22897.aspx

[jshashwat]

This is kinda shocking...

[matz]

this is bad news cos the bass brothers have been used by eminem all the way back to the slim shady lp up to the re-up

[DrRapid]

What a shame that this happened.

[BigBangBazinga]

I hope Aftermath pay what they owe them so everybody can forget it and work on/with Em as usual.

[aleXander]

this is bad news cos the bass brothers have been used by eminem all the way back to the slim shady lp up to the re-up

indeed

[C.L.K]

that is really bad news i hope everising works out

[mctworm]

dammmit! This is only gonna hold back King Mathers!

[,-,'-{Bar}-',-,]

well, if anything this shows the decline in aftermath/shady records as a whole, but first and foremost it shows a decline in eminem for letting it get to this, these guys discovered eminem and basically made him...well not made him, but everyone gives the credit to dre for eminem's beats and shit, well the bass brothers discovered eminem before dre did, and have worked with eminem on WAY more tracks than dre has, dont beileive me, check the credits in any of his albums were he wasnt producing alot himself (slim shady LP, marshal mathers LP) and these guys produced nearly every single track, minus a few dre. tracks (like 2 or 3) even beats eminem produced himself (The cross on nas's god's son album for example) its produced by eminem and jeff bass, so most his own beats are also produced by these guys aswell....i mean, if eminem has let these finacial problems get in the way of that partnership you can say bye Bye to another eminem album..ever

[SkylZ]

Yeah, it sucks. But it says:

if the case goes to trial.

So maybe it's not that bad yet

[SajN]

well, if anything this shows the decline in aftermath/shady records as a whole, but first and foremost it shows a decline in eminem for letting it get to this, these guys discovered eminem and basically made him...well not made him, but everyone gives the credit to dre for eminem's beats and shit, well the bass brothers discovered eminem before dre did, and have worked with eminem on WAY more tracks than dre has, dont beileive me, check the credits in any of his albums were he wasnt producing alot himself (slim shady LP, marshal mathers LP) and these guys produced nearly every single track, minus a few dre. tracks (like 2 or 3) even beats eminem produced himself (The cross on nas's god's son album for example) its produced by eminem and jeff bass, so most his own beats are also produced by these guys aswell....i mean, if eminem has let these finacial problems get in the way of that partnership you can say bye Bye to another eminem album..ever

I agree with you there + I've almost never seen Eminem talk about Bass Brothers in interviews. It's mostly always about Dre. So it's kinda bad Eminem doesn't say so much about them..

[,-,'-{Bar}-',-,]

well, if anything this shows the decline in aftermath/shady records as a whole, but first and foremost it shows a decline in eminem for letting it get to this, these guys discovered eminem and basically made him...well not made him, but everyone gives the credit to dre for eminem's beats and shit, well the bass brothers discovered eminem before dre did, and have worked with eminem on WAY more tracks than dre has, dont beileive me, check the credits in any of his albums were he wasnt producing alot himself (slim shady LP, marshal mathers LP) and these guys produced nearly every single track, minus a few dre. tracks (like 2 or 3) even beats eminem produced himself (The cross on nas's god's son album for example) its produced by eminem and jeff bass, so most his own beats are also produced by these guys aswell....i mean, if eminem has let these finacial problems get in the way of that partnership you can say bye Bye to another eminem album..ever

I agree with you there + I've almost never seen Eminem talk about Bass Brothers in interviews. It's mostly always about Dre. So it's kinda bad Eminem doesn't say so much about them..

it could be there own choice, these guys might not want major celebrity status or plubicity, i mean they could easily get an interview with any website and talk about there realonship with eminem or talk about the tracks they are working on with eminem or have worked on with him. but they chose not to, so they most likely dont want a the publicity side of things.

and ofcourse, interscope pushed the whole "dr. dre and eminem" thing, crediting him as "executive producer" when the bass brothers produced and put more work into eminem albums than Dr. Dre has, it was all a marketing strategy to make sure eminem had the black listeners.