MF DOOM's widow sues his former A&R rep for allegedly stealing rapper's notebooks
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MF DOOM‘s widow, Jasmine Dumile Thompson, recently filed a lawsuit against Eothen “Egon” Alapatt, the late MC’s former A&R representative, Billboard reports. Thompson alleges Alapatt engaged in multiple types of misconduct that included conversion, fraud, and unjust enrichment. She is seeking a jury trial, and has requested the court establish a constructive trust and issue declaratory relief. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in California.
According to the complaint, Alapatt allegedly stole 31 of MF DOOM’s notebooks that contained the rapper’s song ideas, thoughts, lyrics, and other “creative ideations.”
Thompson also listed 50 unidentified parties whom she believes conspired with the representative. The complaint alleges that while Alapatt has admitted to having the notebooks, he has refused to return them to the widow.
The complaint tells a complex story of how the former A&R came to possess them beginning in 2010. During that year, DOOM traveled to the United Kingdom to perform but was unable to return to Los Angeles because of immigration issues. While he left his notebooks in his studio, Alapatt reportedly didn’t take them until 2016.
According to the allegations in the complaint, “Alapatt never consulted with DOOM about his acquisition of the notebooks and took advantage of DOOM’s being out of the country to obtain them.”
After he allegedly took the notebooks, the complaint claims Alapatt initially denied he had them only to later state he took them as compensation for a $12,500 debt the artist allegedly owed him for studio rent. Thompson disputes the accuracy of this claim.
A few months before MF DOOM died in 2020, the representative reportedly agreed to send him photocopies of his notebooks. Alapatt subsequently sent a hard drive containing high-resolution scans of their contents.
In her lawsuit, Thompson claims this showed Alapatt infringed on the intellectual property rights of MF DOOM’s estate by photocopying and distributing the intellectual property. He was allegedly in talks with collectors and archivists about selling copies of the notebooks or the books themselves.
The complaint states, “Although Alapatt has professed that he ‘does not intend to publish’ the unauthorized digital copies he made, he does not have to ‘publish’ the copies of his infringing copies to be liable.”
Kenneth Freundlich, Alapatt’s attorney, stated that his client “looks forward to his day in court to dismiss these frivolous and untrue allegations.” The lawyer argued that his client was the artist’s landlord and took possession of his belongings after not receiving rent payments for an extended period. He also said that Alapatt intended to donate the notebooks to the Cornell University Hip Hop Archive or the Smithsonian.
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