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Legal
Remy Ma victim restarts efforts to make Universal liable for shooting
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 26 April 2010
The shooting victim of rapper Remy Ma, Makeda Barnes-Joseph, has relaunched her multi-million dollar lawsuit against Universal Music, who, she claims, should accept some responsibility for their artist’s decision to fire at gun in her general direction. It’s a rather optimistic lawsuit that was originally thrown out of court last year.
As much previously reported, in 2008 the rapper was found guilty of shooting Barnes-Joseph the previous year and was sentenced to eight years in jail. The victim launched civil proceedings against the hip hopper and her label the same year.
I think the case against Universal is basically based on the idea that hip hop labels get a commercial benefit from their artists having slightly shady lives. Her lawsuit said the major encouraged Ma’s criminal behaviour by “allowing violence in her music” and by continuing to support her financially even after the shooting.
The label disputed the allegations and successfully applied to the court to have the lawsuit dismissed. But Barnes-Joseph’s lawyer appealed that decision back in February, arguing that the claims in the original lawsuit were not properly considered by the court and that the judge misunderstood the commercial relationship between the label and the gun-happy rap star. Opening arguments relating to that appeal were heard in a New York court last week.
