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Daz Dillinger sues Tupac Shakur estate for unpaid royalties

Daz Dillinger, a Death Row Records producer, has claimed in a new lawsuit that Tupac Shakur's estate has withheld royalties.

The complaint, obtained by Billboard, focuses on royalties from more than a dozen songs co-authored and produced by Dillinger.

The list includes five tracks from Shakur's seminal final album All Eyez on Me, which topped the Billboard 200 in 1996: Ambitionz az a Ridah, Skandalouz, Got My Mind Made Up, 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted and I Ain't Mad at Cha.

Dillinger, real name Delmar Arnaud, alleges in the lawsuit that he last demanded royalties in 2024 and was paid $91,000 (£67,000) by Amaru Entertainment, the arm of Shakur's estate founded in 1997 by his mother, Afeni Shakur, that manages the late rapper's music assets.

Dillinger, who is Snoop Dogg's cousin, says the estate did not provide any royalty statements to back up this amount, and that he believes there's additional money being kept from him.

The lawsuit asks a judge to force the Shakur estate to provide Dillinger with a full audit of profits and licenses from all the songs he helped create. Dillinger then wants to be paid his allegedly past-due royalties, plus financial damages for breach of contract.

His lawyer told Billboard, "It is my expectation that this matter will be amicably resolved."

In 2001, Afeni Shakur sued Dillinger for allegedly holding onto and threatening to disseminate unreleased Tupac music without the estate's consent. That case was settled out of court in 2002.

Photo: Cover Media
Source: Cover Media
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