{"id":46736,"date":"2025-07-30T04:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T04:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/46736\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T04:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T04:58:08","slug":"dr-khalid-muhammads-estate-files-lawsuits-against-2pac-public-enemy-and-dangelo-over-uncleared-vocal-samples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/46736\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Khalid Muhammad’s Estate Files Lawsuits Against 2Pac, Public Enemy, And D’Angelo Over Uncleared Vocal Samples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In an unexpected development, Dr. Khalid Muhammad\u2019s estate has filed three federal lawsuits in California. The suits accuse major artists and record labels of exploiting the late activist\u2019s speeches without consent, credit or compensation. Muhammad’s estate is targeting names that include 2Pac<\/a>, Public Enemy and D\u2019Angelo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese lawsuits are not an attack on Public Enemy, Tupac\u2019s family or D\u2019Angelo,\u201d said attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz, who represents the estate. \u201cThey are about accountability. The record labels and music corporations exploited Khalid Muhammad\u2019s voice for profit, just like they\u2019ve done to the Black artists whose songs featured him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement first provided to\u00a0AllHipHop,<\/a>\u00a0Dr. Muhammad\u2019s 79-year-old sister Gloria Valson\u00a0broke her silence and called out the high-level executives she says manipulated her brother\u2019s legacy for profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about Tupac Shakur\u2019s record label\u2014the one run by Tom Whalley\u2014the man who profited off my brother\u2019s legacy while denying him the credit and compensation he deserved,\u201d she stated. Valson referenced 2Pac\u2019s 1996\u00a0track \u201cWhite Man\u2019z World,\u201d which uses Muhammad\u2019s voice in the intro.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be clear,\u201d she continued. \u201cTupac was murdered. And though his\u00a0Makaveli\u00a0album came out after his death, we know he would have wanted my brother, Dr. Khalid Muhammad, to be credited and paid for the use of his voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khalid Muhammad Lawsuit<\/p>\n

The lawsuits also target D\u2019Angelo\u2019s 2014 track \u201c1000 Deaths\u201d and Public Enemy\u2019s classic \u201cNight of the Living Baseheads.\u201d Both tracks use Muhammad\u2019s words, and neither of those artists reportedly paid the family. \u201cYou want to talk about D\u2019Angelo\u2014with a name like\u00a0Black Messiah, you should know better,\u201d Valson added. \u201cYou took my brother\u2019s voice, used a whole minute of his speech and never got permission. Not a second should\u2019ve been used. You owe the family. Pay what you owe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happened is disgraceful, plain and simple,” Valson said. “We want to fix what\u2019s been wrong for too long. We want justice and restitution, not just for our family but for the mission Khalid Muhammad lived and died for.\u201d Valson also states that the estate intends to build a Black museum and institutions for Black studies. If successful, the payouts from these suits could result in the funds to begin such a large-scale project.<\/p>\n

Dr. Khalid Muhammad was a controversial militant figure, known for his role as the main spokesman for the Nation of Islam in the early 1990s before becoming the national chairman of the New Black Panther Party in 1997. Despite his often inflammatory rhetoric, he has become immortalized in hip-hop history through the repeated use of his voice. He died in 2001, at the age of 53.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an unexpected development, Dr. Khalid Muhammad\u2019s estate has filed three federal lawsuits in California. The suits accuse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[36742,20630,2945,88,2769,29396,36743,36744,216,3,36745],"class_list":["post-46736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-2pac","tag-common","tag-d","tag-entertainment","tag-hip-hop-news","tag-ice-cube","tag-khalid-muhammad","tag-khalid-muhammad-lawsuit","tag-music","tag-news","tag-public-enemy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}