EXCLUSIVE: Jay-Z And Timbaland Beat 81-Year-Old Musician In $2 Million Sample Battle

(AllHipHop News) Super producer Timbaland and Jay-Z have beaten an elderly musician in a $2 million legal battle over claims they stole his song and never paid him a dime.

Ernie Hines filed the complaint against Timbaland and Jay in May of 2019, claiming they made millions by sampling his song “Help Me Put Out the Flame (In My Heart).”

Hines said the pair used it in two songs, “Toe 2 Toe” by Ginuwine and “Paper Chase” featuring Foxy Brown, from Jay’s#### album Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life.

Ernie Hines said the superstar pair acknowledged him as the writer in the credits, but he was never compensated for his work because he is a “senior citizen (and) does not listen to rap music.”

In October of 2019, Jay-Z’s lawyer moved to have the whole case dismissed, after Hines tried to amend his lawsuit. Furthermore, Hines did serve Jay or Tim with the lawsuits within the court-mandated time period of 90 days.

Earlier this week, Hines, 81, was handed a defeat for being too slow to bring the action against Jay-Z and Timbaland.

“Hines has not demonstrated a diligent or “reasonable” attempt at timely service of process,” Judge J. Paul Oetken ruled. “Hines alleges only one (unsuccessful) attempt to serve Jay-Z within the requisite ninety-day period. And Hines does not allege even a single timely attempt to serve Timbaland. Such desultory attempts cannot qualify as “reasonable” efforts to effect service. Furthermore, Hines did not move for an extension of time to serve either Jay-Z or Timbaland until after the expiration of the deadline for service of process.”

The crushing blow came when Judge Oetken dismissed key copyright claims against Roc-A-Fella Records.

“The complaint in this case entirely fails to identify which elements of ‘Help Me’ were infringed or which elements of ‘Paper Chase’ and ‘Toe 2 Toe’ are infringing. The complaint contains only broad allegations of similarity. These ‘vague and general allegations of similarity’ do not suffice,” Judge Oetken ruled.

The lawsuit may not be over though, depending on how aggressive Ernie Hines wants to be in defending his copyright for “Help Me Put Out the Flame (In My Heart).”

Judge Oetken granted Hines’ motion for leave to file an amended lawsuit, as long as he pays Roc-A-Fella’s legal bill for defending their motion to dismiss the original complaint.

Now Hines has 60 days to decide if he wants to take another crack at Jay-Z and Timbaland. If he doesn’t Judge Oetken will dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice.