One day before Adam Yauch passed away, the Beastie Boys were served with a lawsuit over samples that they used on their albums License to Ill (1986) and Paul's Boutique (1989).
TufAmerica filed the lawsuit against the group plus Universal Music, Brooklyn Dust Music and Capitol Records claiming copyright infringement for samples used of the tracks Say What and Drop the Bomb by the group Trouble Funk.
According to court papers, TufAmerica is alleging that they were never told about the sampling and that the information was "purposely concealed."
The manner in which the Say What sample was incorporated as a part of the words and music that make up the Shadrach recording effectively concealed to the casual listener the fact that the Say What sample was part of Shadrach.
Only after conducting a careful audio analysis of Shadrach that included isolating the suspected portion of the recording and comparing it with various parts of Say What was TufAmerica able to determine that Shadrach incorporates the Say What sample.
The suit also alleges that samples from Drop the Bomb were used on Licensed to Ill's Hold It Now Hit It and The New Style and Paul's Boutique's Car Thief.
Legal experts have pointed out that the lawsuit may not be enforceable as the copyright laws being referenced in the paperwork were not put in place until the early-90's
