T.I. is facing a new lawsuit from veteran hip hop producer Sir Jinx over his oft-raised accusations that the rapper has failed to pay proper royalties for his 2016 Dr. Dre collaboration “Dope.”
Jinx (Anthony Wheaton) – Dre’s cousin who rose to fame with Ice Cube in the 1980s – is publicly credited as a producer on the disputed 2016 song. But in a lawsuit filed Sunday in Los Angeles federal court, he says he’s been denied his full compensation.
“Despite repeated demands, including a formal demand letter dated November 11, 2022, defendants have failed and refused to provide an accounting or pay royalties owed to plaintiff,” Jinx’s lawyers write.
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Though the lawsuit is new, Jinx’s accusations are not. He’s already sued T.I.’s company (Grand Hustle, LLC) over such allegations twice before – once in state court in 2023 and again in federal court earlier this year. But he dropped the state case in April after a judge largely sided with T.I., and the first federal case was dismissed last month over procedural defects.
Reps for T.I.’s company and an attorney for Jinx did not immediately return requests for comment on the dispute. Dre is not involved in the litigation on either side.
Jinx rose to prominence in the 1980s as a member of the hip hop trio C.I.A. alongside Ice Cube and Kid Disaster. In addition to producing Cube’s early albums, he then had a prolific career in the studio for other artists, producing records for Yo-Yo, Tone Loc, Xzibit and others.
But in recent years, Jinx has become more of a prolific litigant. In 2021, he sued Ice Cube over claims that he was still owed royalties for more than two dozen tracks he had produced for the star. And in December, he sued Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group over claims that he hadn’t been fully paid for his work on Yo-Yo’s 1991 album Make Way for the Motherlode.
T.I. released a star-studded video for “Dope” in 2016, with Dre listed as a producer after hinting earlier that he’d been working with the rap icon on his upcoming album Dime Trap: “Dre’s the homie, to be honest with you,” T.I. told Rolling Stone in 2015. “I’ve never seen somebody so meticulous about music before.”
When the album was finally released in 2018 by his Grand Hustle Records and Sony’s Epic Records, “Dope” wasn’t included in the track list. But the song remains popular on YouTube, where the video has racked up more than 19 million views.
Jinx says it’s not in dispute that he worked on the song – and on T.I.’s official YouTube channel, the longtime DJ is indeed listed as a producer for the track. But like his previous cases, his new lawsuit seems to claim that he was not aware that “Dope” had been dropped publicly – and that he now wants his cut from any proceeds.
“Plaintiff later discovered that ‘Dope’ was released and exploited,” his lawyers say. “Defendants’ continued unauthorized use of ‘Dope’ has resulted in substantial financial harm to plaintiff.”
The lawsuit does not name an exact amount of damages, but says Jinx is owed at least $800,000 from T.I.’s company.
