Three 6 Mafia Files $6 Million Copyright Lawsuit Against Suicideboys

Three 6 Mafia claims the group illegally profited off their original sound.

In documents from June 25 obtained by XXL, the site has learned Three 6 Mafia has filed a copyright infringement against New Orleans-based group SuicideBoys. The suit alleges the group illegally sampled and stole about 35 tracks belonging to the Academy Award-winning group.

Three 6 Mafia’s attorneys claim that Suicideboys illegally used elements from their songs “Mask and Da Glock,” “Mafia Niggaz,” and “Smoked Out Loced Out” for their tracks titled “Ma$k and da Glock,” “Smoked Out, Loced Out,” and “BREAKDALAW2K16.” Each of the younger group’s tracks feature the same instrumental as their Three 6 counterparts.

“Defendants’ infringing songs have garnered millions of streams on YouTube.com, Spotify, Soundcloud and Apple Music,” the documents read, “for which they have received royalties payments.”

Suicideboys deny illegally sampling the songs, and also claim that Juicy J and DJ Paul don’t even own copyrights for most of the songs they’re accused of stealing from. Additionally, they claim Juicy J verbally approved clearances of any Three 6 Mafia samples in exchange for production services, unpublished beats, and creative contributions to two Juicy J mixtapes. Juicy J allegedly never presented any document transferring rights to creative contributions.

The two groups have worked together on multiple occasions. According to the documents, an associate of DJ Paul once offered the younger group $500 per show to open for Paul. They rejected the opportunity. In 2017, Juicy J claimed to be making a mixtape with Suicideboys, sharing videos of each other working in the studio.

Stay tuned for further updates.