December 08, 2000
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Keith Murray has demanded Diddy give him his publishing rights.
In one of the latest segments of his interview with The Art of Dialogue, Murray recalled the time he was called in to feature on G. Dep’s 2001 track “Special Delivery (Remix).” The Def Squad rapper admitted he had no idea about publishing at the time, and all he saw was the $5,000 check Puff allegedly paid him for the rights to his verse.
“They call me, ‘Yo, Murray come to the studio and do the song.’ I wrote my shit first, and the Trackmasters did the beat, and then Harve [Pierre] come, ‘Yo, Puffy wants to buy the publishing.’ Back then, I didn’t know about buying publishing. N-gga gave me $5,000 for publishing, I took the check and went and bought a Rolex from the Diamond District.”
He continued: “The song was a single, then there was a video, then it was popping. Now that shit come on, ‘Yo! This for my n-ggas dem special delivery / Bang ya head off to this, fuckin’ up your memory.’ To this day!”
Despite being persuaded by Puffy to naively give up his publishing rights, Keith Murray saluted Erick Sermon for taking a different approach with artists when it came to the business side of things.
“Erick Sermon was like, ‘Yo, you’re publishing is important.’ He gave me and Redman our publishing,” he said. “He never messed with our intellectual property for monetary gain. That’s one of the things the boss always gave us and showed us.”
Murray then explained that he wanted his publishing back from Diddy so he could put it under his kids’ names and allow them to reap the long-term rewards.
“Yo Puff, I want my publishing to put it in Madison and Dolly’s name. My kids Madison and Milan because Dolly don’t need it,” he demanded. “Puff, sign this paperwork. I want my publishing Puff. Puff, it’s my publishing and I want it now! It’s my money and I want it now!”
The New York native ended the segment by revealing he wants to sign with Bad Boy and has an album produced by Erick Sermon titled The Ugliest Thing in the World in the chamber.
Keith Murray has been on something of a media tour in recent weeks with all the stories he’s shared with The Art of Dialogue.
One of the most recent tales involved him witnessing Nas “wrestling” a jewelry thief who tried to snatch his diamond bracelet.
Murray explained that he was out shopping with his friend and their kids on Jamaica Avenue in Queens, New York, when he saw two men off to the side, and kept an eye on them. He eventually ran into Nas and greeted him before the attempted robbery went down.
“Nas is coming out the barbershop and we all cross paths, and then Nas is, like, wrestling,” he recalled. “I bump into him, he bump into me, and I’m putting the kids in the car. Then Nas is like, ‘No, no, not here, not here, no’ and Nas is wrestling with the bracelet.”
Murray and his friend got in the car with the kids as Nas was fending off the attackers. He wanted to help Nas out by hitting the thieves with his car, but knew he couldn’t do it with the children sitting in the back.
“If I hit the n-gga then the cops is gonna come get us because the vehicle is going to be at the scene of the crime,” he added. “So I can’t save Nas. I got to go; I got the kids. But I’m keeping my cool like, ‘Oooh I got the two two right here, oooh these suckers.’”
Murray admitted he couldn’t figure out whether he or Nas were set up. He asked the Queensbridge rapper who the guys were later on, but all he said was it was a “close one.”