Beyonce's husband, rapper and music producer Jay Z, has been cleared of the charges against him after being sued for "stealing" flute samples from the 1957 song “Khosara Khosara” without permission from its Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdy.
However, much to the dismay of Hamdy's nephew, Osama Hamdy, who filed the lawsuit, after a week of testimony from the superstar, US district judge Christina Snyder ruled that Jay Z isn't liable for "an uncleared sample that helped to make up his 1999 hit "Big Pimpin'," reported The Verge.
Hamdy's "Khosara, Khosara", sung by renowned Egyptian artist Abdel Halim Hafez, was used by Jay Z and Timbaland as a chorus loop for "Big Pimpin" allegedly without realizing it was owned by EMI Music Arabia. In 2001 the producers paid $100,000 to EMI Music Arabia to acquire the license.
During the trial, representatives for Hamdy's nephew Osama Ahmed Fahmy said that Jay Z, aka Shawn Carter, and producer Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley deliberately avoided requesting permission to sample Hamdy's music in advance because they allegedly knew it wouldn't be given due to the explicit lyrics of "Big Pimpin".
Jay Z leaving LA court after charges of 'Big Pimpin' copyright infringement were thrown out. https://t.co/XDwZhKE6Rh https://t.co/i7jPCyxBbi
— AJ+ (@ajplus) October 22, 2015
