Beastie Boys Lawsuit On Eve Of MCA's Death Adds Insult To Injury

The Beastie Boys were slapped with a lawsuit of the eve of the death of band member Adam Yauch, a.k.a. MCA, adding insult to the devastating injury of losing the musician at the age of 47.

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in New York, alleges that a number of the Beasties' songs illegally sample the songs Say What and Drop the Bomb by the band Trouble Funk, according to Reuters.

Filed on behalf of TufAmerica Music Label Records, the lawsuit claims that the Beastie Boys and Universal Records allegedly broke the law by using bits of the songs on their seminal hip hop albums Licensed to Ill and Paul's Boutique.

The complaint alleges that TufAmerica never received royalties or other payments for the alleged ripping off of their songs for the Beastie Boys tracks Shadrach, Car Thief, The New Style and Hold It Now Hit It.

The Beastie Boys were innovators in the field of piecing together rich musical tapestries from disparate sounds and sources, and Paul's Boutique in particular is known as a leading album in this regard, using so many samples from the Beatles to old-school reggae artists that it created a sound of its own.

But the fallout of even the oldest sampling incidents continue to play out, and the new Beastie Boys lawsuit is just the latest in a long series of similar suits against groups from the Beasties to Biz Markie.

Capital Records, Universal Music and Brooklyn Dust Music are also being sued in the filing, which asks for unspecified damages.

Adam Yauch died last Thursday at the age of 47 after a three-year struggle with cancer, leaving a gaping hole in the Beastie trio.