Busta Rhymes and the other members of the now-defunct Leaders of the New School have been slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit that claims the rap music group illegally sampled Dyke and The Blazers’ tune “Let A Woman Be A Woman, Let A Man Be A Man” in a 1991 song called “Case of the P.T.A.” Leaders of the New School broke up in 1993. Elektra Records is also named in the suit.

Drive-In Music Company, which owns the rights to Let A Woman Be A Woman, Let A Man Be A Man, says it didn’t notice the infringement until recently, but filed the suit almost immediately after the infringement came to their attention. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages, a permanent injunction to prevent future sales of the Leaders of the New School album “A Future Without A Past” on which the disputed song appears, and to have any remaining CDs removed from store shelves. The track in question is still available as a download.

Sampling is an integral part of rap music, but it tends to cut down on the artist’s profits because typically, samples are used with permission in an arrangement called a “split.” A split is a negotiated share of a song’s earnings that go to the sampled artist.

For new music producers, including samples can be particularly dangerous. In this case, the alleged infringement happened nearly 20 years ago and the current and future commercial value of both songs in question is small. Using royalty-free samples is one way to avoid this kind of problem, even into the future.

Music production software like Sonic Producer features thousands of royalty-free samples that can be used on any music track created with the software. There will be no future royalty payments on any work using a Sonic Producer sample. This makes Sonic Producer the ideal tool for both beginning and experienced rap music artists who want to self-produce their music.

Sonic Producer works on both the PC and Mac platforms and requires no additional equipment or software to work. You can add your own music, samples and lyrics and create professional-sounding tracks that you can export and share. Sonic Producer is a great way to break into the music business. Learn how to create your own music, mix your own sounds and get your music out to the world. Download your copy of Sonic Producer today!

Photo Credit: Top Streetwear, via Flickr