After eight years of lawsuits against Jay-Z and producer Timbaland for sampling Abdel Halim Hafez's "Khosara, Khosara," federal judge Christina Snyder referred the case to trial. It is scheduled to take place on Oct. 13.
Although Hafez, and Baligh Hamdy, the original song's composer, are now dead, the lawsuits were filed and diligently followed through by Osama Ahmed Fahmy, who claims to be Hamdy's heir.
According to the latest motion which was raised in February, Fahmy accused Jay-Z and Timbaland of copyright infringements, a motion which also named Paramount Pictures, Warner Music, UMG and MTV among the defendants. The song originally appeared in the 1960's Egyptian movie "Fata Ahlami."
The controversy revolves around the opening tunes of Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin" which are similar to the opening tunes of Hafez's "Khosara, Khosara."
Timbaland claims he was licensed to use the tune by EMI Arabia, which in turn licensed the use of the song by the Egyptian record label Sout El Phan.
“That’s the real problem here," argued Fahmy's attorney, Keith Wesley of Browne George Ross, in court on Monday. "Sout el Phan said, 'EMI Arabia, you can use it, but you can't go out and give away rights to someone else. I don’t have authority to do that, and the copyright owner hasn’t given me rights to do that.'"
Fahmy also accused Jay-Z of using the tune of a sensible romantic song in an offensive context that sexualizes women and demeans them.
“They used it with a song that even by Jay Z’s own admission is very vulgar and base,” said Fahmy’s lawyer, Keith Wesley, speaking by phone from Los Angeles to The Guardian . “That’s really why this is so significant to my client. They not only took music without paying. They’re using it in a song that is, frankly, disgusting.”
Outside of the legal issues, some people argue that the use of cross-cultural music samples is a good approach that adds spice and edge to music. Nevertheless, critics regard this approach as exploitation.
“To the extent that the song got its consumers to appreciate Abdel Halim, it’s a useful global crossover,” said Ted Swedenburg, a professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas and a scholar on Middle Eastern popular music, referring to Big Pimpin’.
On the other hand, he said the song was a case of a rapper “escaping the punishing and very expensive regime of sampling in the West, so exploiting the apparent absence of copyright on an Abdel Halim song.”
"I think this case really has to head toward some form of resolution sooner rather than later," said Snyder in court as she passed her ruling, commenting on the lawsuit's extraordinary lifespan.
It isn't unfamiliar that Arabs will listen to foreign songs whose tunes strike extreme relevance to Arabic ones, take for example the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" which plays on Tholathy Adwa' El Masrah's "Bos, Shouf, Meen, Ya Wa'ady", or Madonna's "Erotica" where she samples the Lebanese diva, Fayrouz.
However, we prefer to see more instances of cross-cultural arts that don't involve exploitation.