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Indian composer wins hip hop wrangle
Tuesday, February 4, 2003 Posted: 3:30 PM HKT (0730 GMT)

American hip hop artist/producer Dr. Dre reportedly remixed Lahiri's song
without crediting him

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LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- A famed Indian composer has won a
court order barring sales of a hip-hop hit he claims borrowed heavily and
without credit from one of his songs in an act of "cultural imperialism."

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday issued an order prohibiting
further sales of the song "Addictive" by Truth Hurts unless and until
composer Bappi Lahiri is listed on the song's credits, Anthony Kornarens,
an attorney for Lahiri said.

"The judge took the matter quite seriously and felt as though, from what I
could tell, the defendants had not acted appropriately," Kornarens said.

Lahiri first filed in October against hip hop producer Dr. Dre, whose real
name is Andre Young, Aftermath Records, Aftermath parent Interscope
Records and Universal Music Group, the world's largest media company and a
unit of Vivendi Universal

A spokesman for Universal Music referred calls to Interscope. An
Interscope spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment. Dr.
Dre's attorney, Howard King, was also not immediately available to
comment.

Kornarens said Universal's attorneys indicated to the court they would
consider an appeal of the injunction.

Lahiri claims that the producers of "Addictive" lifted four minutes of the
original recording of the song "Thoda Resham Lagta Hai."

Truth Hurts' album sold about 600,000 copies between its June release and
the time the suit was filed late last year.

"Addictive" was released as a single and became a top 10 hit. Truth Hurts,
whose real name is Shari Watson, told MTV last year that Dre had remixed
"Addictive," according to an article that appeared on the MTV Web site.

"He really took it to another level," she said at the time. "He took
another part of the Indian sample and added it to the beginning and to the
middle."

Kornarens, who accused the record label of "cultural imperialism," said
the judge set an expedited trial date of June 17 for Lahiri's suit.



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