The controversy surrounding the 2008 Universal Studios Hollywod fire continues after the New York Times Magazine reports more artists affected by the catastrophic event. On Tuesday (June 25), another NYT article claimed over 800 additional artists had their master recordings destroyed in the blaze.
Among those artists included are Common, Bell Biv DeVoe, Limp Bizkit, Dr. Martin Luther King, Heavy D and more. Tupac, Eminem, and 50 Cent were among those mentioned in the original story. When the original NYT Magazine article was initially released earlier this month, Universal downplayed the impact of the tragedy.
“While there are constraints preventing us from publicly addressing some of the details, the incident never affected the availability of the commercially released music nor impacted artists’ compensation,” Universal said in a statement.
The music conglomerate marginalized the reporting, claiming there were numerous “inaccuracies” in the piece without citing the discrepancies.
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The newly revealed findings prompted the Tupac Shakur Estate, Tom Petty’s ex-wife Jane, Soundgarden and others to file a class action lawsuit against UMG.
Black Thought of the critically-acclaimed group The Roots talked to HipHopDX exclusively about how disheartening the news was.
“In short, that was the most depressing article ever. Not ‘EVER,’ but it was pretty heavy. I remember when it went down,” he said to DX. “Our first two classics — Do You Want More?!!!??! and Illadelph Halflife — were lost in the blaze. But I also strangely feel like … though things are often beyond our comprehension, still they happen as they should.”
