A Florida man named Thomas Marasciullo filed a copyright infringement lawsuit Friday (Oct 31) in a Manhattan federal court against rappers Lil Wayne and Birdman. The suit was also filed against their record label and various music distribution outlets.

Marasciullo is looking for recognition in a voice over that Wayne used back in 2006. The lawsuit against Cash Money states that Thomas recorded some Italian styled word arrangements and Lil’ Wayne and Birdman used them without permission (or pay) on a track entitled “Respect.”

AP reports: “The gold-selling “Like Father, Like Son” hit the top of the R&B/hip-hop album chart. Several short tracks that Marasciullo says he wrote, recorded and copyrighted — including “Loyalty” and “Respect” — feature a man’s voice delivering mob-movie-flavored repartee.

Among the remarks, from “Loyalty”: “The main name in this game is respect and loyalty. Family is a big thing. When we do this kind of business, everything is with respect.” The lawsuit says Marasciullo’s recordings were used in four tracks on that album and five on “5 (Star) Stunna.”

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R&B/pop singer and songwriter Chris Brown is gearing up for the release of his third studio album, Graffiti, due in stores December 15th. And the 20-year-old singing sensation released his brand new music video for “I Can Transform Ya,” featuring Lil Wayne and Swizz Beatz. Continue reading to peep the new video, which also features a cameo appearance from actor/singer Tyrese at the end!

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Rap star Lil Wayne pleaded guilty to a class “D” violent felony of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree at a court hearing in Manhattan Thursday morning (Oct 22) stemming from a July 2007 arrest following a show in New York.

Police pulled over Wayne’s tour bus back in July 2007 on the night of his show at New York’s Beacon Theater, which also marked his first headlining concert in the city. After conducing a search of the bus, he and another man were subsequently arrested by NY police for criminal possession of a weapon (a .40-caliber semi-automatic) and criminal possession of marijuana, respectively.

At Thursday’s court hearing, he pleaded guilty to the charges and accepted a 1-year prison term, of which he’s only expected to serve about 8 months.

Lil Wayne (real name: Dwayne Carter) will officially be sentenced in February 2010, and at that point he must surrender himself to authorities and begin his prison sentence.

Jay Sean may be new to us, but from what we hear, he’s been doing the damn thing oveseas since 2005! His first U.S. single “Down” (featuring labelmate Lil Wayne) is currently sitting at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, after taking the Black Eyed Peas‘ spot and spending a week at the #1 position.

Jay Sean (born Kamalijit Singh Jhooti) is a British Indian Pop/R&B singer/songwriter, born in West London, England to parents who migrated to the U.K. from Punjab, India. He started his music career overseas under Virgin Records and he signed to Cash Money Records over here in the U.S. back in 2008.

Jay and his bosses Birdman and Slim from Cash Money hosted a listening session last night at New York City’s greenhouse nightclub. Executives and artists from Universal Republic (Cash Money’s parent label). R&B singer/songwriter Melanie Fiona was also on hand to help celebrate her labelmate’s recent success of being the first Cash Money artist to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this year.

Be on the look out for Sean’s U.S. debut album, All or Nothing, set to be released November 2009.

Continue reading for more pics and Jay Sean and Lil Wayne’s music video for the hit single “Down!”

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(01.) Jay-Z was given the honor of being the top emcee in the rap game for the year 2009, according to MTV. They give most of the credit due to his recent success with his latest album, The Blueprint 3.

Blueprint 3 is another Hov tour de force — and it destroys the myth that there’s an age limit on being a dope MC. At 39 years old, Jay is arguably still better than anybody on the mic today, rhyming with precision and grace. He throws buzzsaws right from the gate on the intro “What We Talking About,” where he raps about what he deems to be nonsense, like dwelling on rap beef.

Check out the full list after the break!
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So this is it. Chris Brown’s official first comeback single. “I Can Transform Ya” features rapper Lil’ Wayne and producer Swizz Beatz. The track is the debut single from his upcoming third album Graffiti, set to drop sometime early next year. It’s interesting to see how well this single and the album will do considering all of the negative press Chris has been getting ever since that big fight with Rihanna back in February 2009.

But so far, radio stations all over are reporting that the song is getting a great reception and a lot of positive feedback, despite Brown’s troubled past.

Greenville, South Carolina’s Hot 98.1 began playing the song as soon as it was available, and operations manager/ program director Steve Crumbley said the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive. “The audience loves it,” he said. “The response has been phenomenal, plus you have Lil Wayne on it, so you can’t miss.” According to Crumbley, the recent unsavory headlines surrounding Brown don’t appear to have slowed his career. “You mean because of the Rihanna thing? I didn’t think not playing a man’s record had anything to do with what he did,” Crumbley said when asked whether he’d hesitated to spin the tune. “I’m not making light of abuse. That is terribly wrong and he had to deal with that, but if the man’s got a good song, he’s got a good song.” Crumbley said he’s had not a single negative call about the song so far.

D/L: CHRIS BROWN – I CAN TRANSFORM YA

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Here’s “Forever,” a brand new music video from rappers Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem. The track will be featured first on the soundtrack of Lebron James’ docu-movie “More Than A Game” and second on Drake’s debut album, Thank Me Later, set to drop in February 2010.

Continue reading to check out the new video!

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Pop legend Madonna and hip-hop star Lil Wayne have teamed up on a track titled “Revolver,” which will be featured on Madonna’s upcoming greatest hits album, titled Celebration. M’s compilation album drops September 29th and will be released along with a DVD of music videos.

This sounds more like a Britney song than a Madonna song, but Lil Wayne being enlisted to be featured on the track should definitely be celebrated. And the fact that he’s singing in the song is hilarious to us!!

D/L: MADONNA & LIL WAYNE – REVOLVER

A rep for actress Lauren London has confirmed that rap star Lil Wayne is a father for the third time.

“Lauren London and Dwayne Carter welcomed their healthy baby boy into the world on 09-09-09,” her PR team told our good friends over at Hip Hollywood. Everyone is happy and well.”

No other details, including the baby’s name, have been released yet. This is Lauren London’s first child, but Lil Wayne has two other children from previous relationships — daughter Reginae, 9, from his ex-wife Antonia “Toya” Carter and a 10-month-old son from an unknown woman. In addition, Nivea should be popping out Wayne’s fourth child within the next few months.

Three kids in 12 months? C’mon now Wayne, it’s time to start investing in some latex! More new baby stories when you continue reading…

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It looks like Lil Wayne can continue to name claim on the title of “The Greatest Rapper Alive,” because homeboy raked in about $42 million in touring alone, making him hip-hop’s highest grossing touring artist!

Seventy-eight Lil Wayne headlining arena and amphitheater concerts in North America from Dec. 14, 2008, through Sept. 6, 2009, grossed approximately $42 million and drew nearly 804,000 fans, according to Lil Wayne tour producer and tour business manager Shawn Gee, who also serves as president of music and entertainment at Sports & Entertainment Financial Group.

“It’s definitely one of the biggest in the last couple of years,” Gee tells Billboard.biz, noting that Haymon Events/Live Nation was the exclusive tour promoter for all of the shows. “Our plan was to prove that Wayne was a viable headlining arena artist.”

The second highest-grossing rap tour that Billboard has tracked was Jay-Z’s 2008 jaunt with Mary J. Blige, which grossed $34.6 million and drew 310,694 concertgoers to 28 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore. Kanye West’s 2008 Glow In the Dark tour comes in third, having pulled in $30.8 million from 49 concerts that attracted 507,853 fans.

Other lucrative hip-hop tours in recent years include 2005’s Eminem/50 Cent Anger Management tour, which grossed $22.7 million from 23 shows; and a 50 Cent tour in 2003 that rang up nearly $23 million in ticket sales, much of it co-headlining with Jay-Z on the Roc-the-Mic tour, according to Boxscore.

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