Stones sue. Again

Stones: Sharp lawyers

Rapper Lil Wayne is being sued by the Rolling Stones.

The pumped-up rhymer is number two in the US Billboard charts with Tha Carter III, after selling more than a million copies in the first week of release.

But quite how much of that revenue will go to Lil Wayne remains to be seen. As The Verve know only too well, the Rolling Stones have some very sharp lawyers on their side.

In 1997, the band lost a case over the use of a Rolling Stones orchestral sample as the hook for Bittersweet Symphony. The originally agreed 50/50 split turned into a 100 per cent for the Stones, as The Verve were deemed to have used 'too much' of the sample.

Lil Wayne should be afraid then. According to papers filed in Manhattan yesterday, the Stones people have accused the rapper, his collaborators and record label of copyright infringement on a track called Playing With Fire.

Which is the same name as an old Stones song. And, according to the legal bods, includes a sample of that song. And it shouldn't.

The papers also claim that Lil Wayne has damaged the Stones' reputation with his 'explicit, sexist and offensive language'.

So, apparently leaving your wife for young Russians, having illegitimate kids and being arrested on drug charges makes you pillars of the community.

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