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Pryor Pissed over CD Release
The moral of this lawsuit is: Don't mess with Richard Pryor.
The ailing 64-year-old funnyman is bustin' loose with a lawsuit alleging Universal Music Group cheated him out of substantial royalties by selling 11 recordings, containing many of his most brilliant bits, without permission.
Pryor's suit, filed last Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims UMG failed to obtain the proper licenses for the comedy albums Are You Serious?, Wizard of Comedy, I Ain't Lied Yet, Black Ben and the Blacksmith, Richard Pryor and Everything's Big.
Per court documents obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, the comedian accuses the music giant of "reaping substantial profits from [the titles] without ever having acquired any rights in such recordings."
As a result, Pryor is seeking a cut of the profits as well as unspecified damages for unfair competition, conversion, unjust enrichment and other claims.
Reps for UMG declined to comment on the suit.
The albums are a testament to Pryor's comic genius and feature his typically raunchy routines. Considered one of the greatest stand-ups ever, Pryor influenced everyone from Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams to Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle before multiple sclerosis confined him to a wheelchair and robbed him of his voice.
As his health has declined, Pryor has become more protective of his legacy.
In July, he filed suit against director Penelope Spheeris (Wayne's World) and his own daughter, Rain Pryor, seeking to recover the first film he ever starred in, which he claims they have.
The 1968 comedy Uncle Tom's Fairy Tales, about a white man accused of raping a black woman, was never released to theaters. Pryor says he put up the money for the project and hired Spheeris, then a film student, to help shoot and edit the envelope-pushing movie. But footage apparently went missing from his house 20 years ago--around the time he was recovering from a free-basing incident gone awry and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Although he no longer appears much in public, Pryor did turn out to receive the inaugural Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998, and most recently was featured in the 2004 Comedy Central special, I Ain't Dead Yet, M*therf@ck%r!, where he was lauded by the likes of Rock, Williams and Chappelle, as well as Margaret Cho, Jamie Foxx, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Harvey and Denis Leary. He also maintains a Website, RichardPryor.com, which keeps tabs on his animal-rescue work and features occasional message to fans.
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