A lawsuit brought by rapper and Tupac collaborator Tyruss 'Big Syke' Himes against Fox Television and hip hop mag XXL has, however, been dismissed. Himes sued Fox last July claiming the company's LA based KTTV station defamed him in Summer 2005 by running a news report that connected him with the long unsolved murder of the Notorious BIG. He also claimed that report cost him a "lucrative" record deal with Treacherous Records. XXL were involved because they ran a similar story the following Autumn, alleging Himes conspired with Death Row Records boss Suge Knight in organising a hit squad to murder Biggie in retaliation for the murder of Tupac. Himes denies all the allegations, saying he had "absolutely no involvement with the murder of [Biggie]".
But a judge hearing the lawsuit said that he could not rule against the two media outlets because to do so would contravene the US Constitution's first amendment, because Himes had failed to prove that the media outlets have acted maliciously or with reckless disregard to the truth. The rapper's attorney, in an interestingly restrained response for the hip hop world, told the Associated Press: "We are appreciative of the time and effort the court put into reviewing the case. We're understandably disappointed in the decision and we're evaluating all of our options".