Fiddy's 2 Live Suit

Fri., Jan. 20, 2006 2:00 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

Forget da club, 50 Cent's going to be spending time in da court, thanks to a song-stealing beef.

Fiddy, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, is being accused in new lawsuit of ripping off lyrics from former 2 Live Crew frontman Luther Campbell.

According to Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper, the copyright infringement suit says Fiddy's mega-hit "In Da Club" off his 2003 smash debut Get Rich or Die Tryin' plagiarizes Campbell's 1994 ditty "It's Your Birthday" off his solo album Still a Freak for Life.

The complaint, filed in Miami federal court last week by attorney Richard C. Wolfe on behalf of Lil' Joe Wein Music, alleges that 50 Cent's song shares enough similarities lyrically with the erstwhile Luke Skyywalker's tune to warrant legal action.

The suit claims that the beginning of "In Da Club," in which Fiddy calls out "Go, go, go go/Go, go, go Shorty/It's your birthday.../We're gonna party like it's yo birthday," was stolen from a section in Campbell's song in that features the rapper shouting "Go Derrick, it's your birthday/Go Derrick, it's your birthday/Go Freddie, go, go, go/Go Freddie, go, go, go/It's your birthday."

Lil' Joe Wein Music is owned by Joseph Weinberger, a Florida attorney who took control of Campbell's song catalogue after the "Me So Horny" rapper declared bankruptcy in 1994.

Wolfe was unavailable for comment Friday. But he told the Sun Sentinel that "In Da Club" and "It's Your Birthday" share "the same tone, same pitch, same melody" and sections containing "virtually the same lyrics."

Campbell, who is not a party to the lawsuit because he no longer controls the song rights, declined to comment as did Fiddy's camp, citing the pending litigation.

While the rap star failed to heat up the box office with his 2005 big-screen debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', he more than made up for it on the music side.

His sophomore release, The Massacre, was the second-biggest-selling album last year (behind only Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi) and earned him six trophies at last month's Billboard Music Awards and another half-dozen nominations for next month's Grammys. He also ranked seventh among Billboard's top moneymakers last year, raking in more than $75 million in music and tour revenue.