Memphis record producer and founder of Frayser Click DJ Sound has been sued for copyright infringement by two Memphis rappers who recorded an album with him in the mid-90s, court records show.
The lawsuit was filed Sept. 28 in federal court by MC Money and Gangsta Gold, whose real names are Latonya Pierce and Christy Coran, respectively. According to the lawsuit, Pierce and Coran wrote and performed an album, titled "Da Hard Ov Frayser," that DJ Sound produced.
DJ Sound's real name is Carlos Duan Perry.
According to the lawsuit, there were no agreements made or signed, and neither of the plaintiffs was Perry's employee.
"When contemporary phonk artists began sampling this music, Perry positioned himself as the catalog's gatekeeper," the lawsuit
said. "He licensed plaintiff's songs and recordings, collected fees, publishing interests, and royalties, and authorized a commercial reissue of their album without disclosing the complete terms or accounting for plaintiff's shares."
The lawsuit estimated Pierce and Coran were owed "no less than $500,000 and likely substantially more, subject to the accounting and discovery sought here."
What does the lawsuit allege?
After the record was recorded in the mid 90s, the lawsuit said Perry gave the two rappers the master copy of the album so they could distribute it themselves. And, it said, they did just that, and Perry did not "demand an accounting, claim a share, or say the sales were unauthorized."
The lawsuit said this was evidence of Perry acknowledging the album belonged to MC Money and Gangsta Gold, at least in part. Perry, the lawsuit said, had copies of the album's source materials that he has since used to "isolate instrumentals and a cappella vocals, remaster old recordings, and create additional versions."
The lawsuit also alleges Pierce and Coran's work on "Da Hard Ov Frayser" has appeared in multiple DJ Sound and Frayser Click songs in the form of being "sampled, repurposed, reissued, licensed, incorporated into later recordings, or otherwise exploited."
Years after creating the album, the lawsuit said sampling music from the 90s became popular in modern song production. In that time, Perry has licensed samples from "Da Hard Ov Frayser" multiple times, the lawsuit alleged, and did not pay Pierce or Coran.
Shortly after one transaction, though, Perry told the duo they retained some rights to the music when he told them about the popularity of their older music.
"Perry then paid approximately $2,000 to MC Money (Pierce) and $2,000 to Gangsta Gold (Coran) by cashier's check. In or around 2025, he paid each plaintiff approximately another $400," the lawsuit said.
"...Perry did not disclose the $100,000 master-use fee, the continuing publishing interests, or the method by which he calculated the payments," the lawsuit added.
Perry was also accused of licensing a reissue of "Da Hard Ov Frayser" to Now-Again Records in October 2024 without Pierce or Coran's consent.
In total, the lawsuit said Coran has been paid about $13,800, and Pierce was paid about $13,650 by Perry. But the lawsuit said Perry told "multiple music industry participants" that he planned to stop paying them in the future.
The lawsuit wants a judge to declare Pierce and Cowan to be joint authors and copyright owners of their music, order a full accounting of Perry's licensing fees, and award monetary damages.
Lucas Finton covers crime, policing, jails, the courts and criminal justice policy for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by phone or email: (901)208-3922 and Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, and followed on X @LucasFinton.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis rappers sue DJ Sound for alleged copyright infringement
