Jay Z Testifies in "Big Pimpin’" Trial: "I Didn’t Think There Was A Sample In It"

In a lawsuit more than four years in the making, Jay Z has finally testified in a dispute over his hit 1999 song “Big Pimpin’”, in which a relative of Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdy claimed he made a “moral rights” breach.

As previously reported, in 2011 California federal judge Christina Snyder ruled that Hamdy’s relative Osama Ahmed Fahmy could proceed with a lawsuit claiming that “Big Pimpin’”‘s use of a sample from Hamdy’s 1957 song “Khosara, Khosara” violates Hamdy’s “moral rights”, per Egyptian law. (The song was produced by Timbaland.) Fahmy’s lawsuit contended that only the full, unaltered version of “Khosara, Khosara” could be legally licensed; since the use of the song in “Big Pimpin’” is an altered sampled loop, under Egyptian “moral rights” law, Jay-Z would have had to acquire permission from all four of Hamdy’s children, who the song’s rights were passed down to when Hamdy passed away in 1993.

Now, the New York Times reports that Jay Z told the jury today that he believes he has a valid license to use the song. (“I didn’t think there was a sample in it,” Billboard reports him saying, “Timbaland presented me with a track. I didn’t even think about there being a sample.”)

According to the report, Jay Z testified for 90 minutes and gave mostly “yes” or “no” answers, though he did get cheeky when asked about Kanye West, Rihanna, and other artists he had fostered. “Some people may have heard of him,” Carter’s attorney, Andrew Bart, said of West the in the Times: “‘One or two,’ Carter responded. ‘He’s running for president.’”

Lawyers for Carter and Timbaland reportedly told jurors that Hamdi’s family has been repeatedly paid for the use of the “Khosara Khosara” sample, which a music expert testified contains four notes from the song’s 74.

When asked why he didn’t check out the “Khosara Khosara” rights, he replied, “That’s not what I do. I make music.” When attorney Andrew Bart had him elaborate, he reportedly expounded: “I make music, I’m a rapper, I’ve got a clothing line, I run a label, a media label called Roc Nation, with a sports agency, music publishing and management. Restaurants and nightclubs … I think that about covers it.”

As Billboard reports, Bart then inquired: “I’m not so sure. You have a music streaming service [Tidal], don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah. Forgot about that,” he rejoined.

Later, Timbaland’s attorneys brought out a keyboard for the producer to compose a beat in the courtroom, so that he could demonstrate for the jury the “relative unimportance of ‘Khosara Khosara’ in ‘Big Pimpin,’” but technical problems prevented that. As a result, Timbaland reportedly beatboxed the song instead, “to demonstrate the importance in his productions of the beat, not the samples”.

Defense lawyers are expected to begin their case today, as the dispute continues.

Jay-Z: “Big Pimpin’”:

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