Former heavyweight boxer Mitchell Rose has filed an $88 million dollar copyright lawsuit against Jay-Z in Brooklyn Federal Court, AlHipHop.com has learned.
According to Rose, he gave Jay-Z his demo tape on March 12, 2001, following a bout between William Joppy and Felix Trinidad.
He was shocked to discover that Jay-Z allegedly stole his style of rhyming, delivery and even certain lyrics.
“He took the style and the delivery,” Rose told AllHipHop.com. “He’s using it on the regular, now Lil’ Kim is using it. All I want is justice. Jay-Z knows what I am talking about.”
Rose, 39, is also a personal injury lawyer who wrote a book called Mike Tyson Tried To Kill My Daddy.
The former heavyweight boxer who is known for knocking out Eric “Butterbean” Esch, claims he met Jay-Z right after the Joppy-Trinidad fight and gave a demo to the rap superstar, who promised to listen to it.
“He took the demo with him and shortly after that he began using the whispering in his songs,” Rose said.
Rose, who is also from Brooklyn, has served papers to two of Jay-Z’s 40/40 night clubs, but has yet to tag the rapper himself, according to sources.
“I had previously trained some of my artists to use that style, but it quickly became obsolete after Jay-Z got a hold of it,” Rose claimed. “He [Jay-Z] used the whispering to enhance his music and financially benefit from it. Jay-Z disregarded the fact that it was my demo where he got the style from as he went on to use it for his own personal gains, which is wrong.”
Representatives for Jay-Z were not available to comment as of press time.