Trippie Redd is being sued over a Three 6 Mafia sample in his A Love Letter To You 4 song “Death,” according to TMZ. However, it’s not the members of the Memphis rap group suing the 20-year-old emo rapper from Canton, Ohio — rather, it’s the owner of a little known label called On The Strength Records, who apparently won the rights to the sampled song, “Hit A Muthaf*cka,” in a 2015 settlement with Three 6 member DJ Paul.
On The Strength Records is owned by Reginald Boyland, who says that “Hit A Muthaf*cka” samples the song “Pimps In The House” by 8Ball & MJG, fellow pioneers of the Memphis rap scene and close associates of Three 6 Mafia. That song lives on the duo’s 1993 debut album Comin’ Out Hard, which was released under the legendary Suave House imprint, but their first release, “Listen To The Lyrics,” was indeed released independently with backing from On The Strength in 1991 according to Discogs.com. Whether or not Boyland’s initial agreement extended to the group’s debut two years later is unclear, but as we’ve seen with Megan Thee Stallion this week, label issues can quickly grow tangled and hard to decipher.
In any event, Boyland says that he owns the rights to “Pimps In The House,” which means he may have been entitled to part of the “Hit A Muthaf*cka” publishing. If what he says about winning the rights in 2015 is true, that would also entitle him to parts of “Death,” which samples “Hit” extensively, interpolating its chorus throughout the beat. Boyland is suing for copyright infringement and a cut of the profits from “Death,” which also features Three 6-influenced North Carolina rapper DaBaby.
Listen to “Death” above.
