Three years in the past, the nice indie-rap enigma MF DOOM died on the age of 49. Earlier this week, DOOM’s widow Jasmine Dumile Thompson filed a lawsuit towards Eothen “Egon” Alapatt, the previous common supervisor and A&R rep of the indie label Stones Throw Data, for allegedly stealing 31 of DOOM’s notebooks, which embrace lyrics that he wrote for traditional albums like Madvillainy, Operation: Doomsday, and Mm.. Meals.

Billboard experiences that Thompson filed her lawsuit towards Egon on Tuesday in California federal court docket. Thompson claims that Egon took DOOM’s notebooks after DOOM was barred from reentering the US. In 2010, DOOM, who’d been born within the UK however who’d grown up within the US, left for a UK tour, and he was prevented from returning to the US due to an immigration difficulty. Because of this, DOOM spent the final decade of his life in London, basically residing in exile. DOOM left his 31 notebooks behind in his Los Angeles studio. Along with DOOM’s handwritten lyrics for his well-known songs, Thompson claims that the notebooks included unreleased tune concepts and “different artistic ideations.”

In accordance the the lawsuit, Egon “took illegal possession” of DOOM’s notebooks six years after DOOM was prevented from returning to Los Angeles: “Alapatt by no means consulted with DOOM about his acquisition of the notebooks and took benefit of DOOM’s being out the nation to acquire them.” Thompson claims that DOOM confronted Egon over the notebooks and that Egon first denied having them. Later, DOOM allegedly discovered from the studios’ landlord that Egon did have the notebooks, and Egon allegedly admitted to having them.

The lawsuit claims that Egon mentioned he obtained the notebooks as a result of DOOM owed $12,500 in overdue studio hire. In accordance with Thompson, Egon claimed that he paid the again hire on DOOM’s behalf and that the owner would’ve in any other case seized and destroyed DOOM’s property. (Egon had a longstanding relationship with DOOM. Madvillainy got here out on Stones Throw, and Egon can be Madlib’s former supervisor and the founding father of Now-Once more Data.) Egon allegedly claimed that the notebooks then turned his property. Thompson additionally says that she suspects DOOM didn’t truly owe any hire and that Egon merely paid the owner that cash to purchase the notebooks outright.

The lawsuit claims that DOOM tried to get his notebooks again from Egon in 2020. Egon allegedly supplied to ship DOOM scans of the pocket book pages whereas holding the bodily books for himself, and DOOM allegedly refused that supply. Simply earlier than DOOM’s demise, Egon allegedly despatched DOOM a tough drive with scans of each pocket book. Earlier this yr, Thompson posted emails between DOOM and Egon on DOOM’s social-media accounts, writing, “Egon Give The Notebooks Again.”

Thompson’s lawsuit claims that Egon is now demanding that the notebooks needs to be “donated to a college or authorities archive” or “museum or different establishment of [Egon’s] selecting.” Thompson claims that Egon was in talks to promote DOOM’s notebooks to unnamed potential patrons and that he shared the pocket book scans with folks aside from DOOM. The lawsuit additionally claims that DOOM meant for the notebooks’ contents “to be secret and confidential” and that Egon dedicated copyright infringement by sharing the scans with different events: “Though Alapatt has professed that he ‘doesn’t intend to publish’ the unauthorized digital copies he made, he doesn’t need to ‘publish’ the copies of his infringing copies to be liable.”

Together with copyright infringement, the lawsuit accuses Egon of “fraud, conversion, unjust enrichment, constructive belief, and declaratory reduction.” Jasmine Dumile Thompson is demanding the bodily copies of the notebooks, the destruction of the scans, and “important compensation.” She’s in search of a jury trial.

In an announcement to Billboard, Egon’s lawyer Kenneth Freundlich says:

Mr. Alapatt seems ahead to his day in court docket to dismiss these frivolous and unfaithful allegations. Mr. Alapatt rescued these books from DOOM’s unpaid landlord who had taken possession of all of his belongings. With DOOM’s blessing, Mr. Alapatt meant to donate the books to both the Smithsonian or the Cornell College Hip Hop Archive, the place they may very well be thought of and studied by students, in the identical approach that manuscripts by nice poets or sheet music by nice composers are. Mr. Alapatt will do the whole lot he can to make sure that these traditionally important books are archived and guarded.

Earlier this yr, Jasmine Dumile Thompson mentioned that DOOM was given shoddy medical remedy in a London hospital, implying that this might’ve led to his demise. Each new factor that we find out about DOOM’s passing makes the entire thing really feel even sadder and extra irritating.