A former consultant for Sean “Diddy” Combs has filed a $19 million lawsuit against the Hip-Hop mogul, claiming that Combs never paid him for music created by the slain rapper Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace.
According to both Billboard and the Associated Press, James Sabatino flew Wallace to Miami in 1994, where he recorded vocals for Combs. In the lawsuit Sabatino concedes that a contract was never signed, but he says it was to be understood that he owned the vocals since he paid for Wallace’s studio time and travel expenses.
After Wallace was killed in 1997, Combs agreed to buy the music from Sabatino for $200,000. Combs paid Sabatino $25,000 and promised to pay the remainder within 60 days. The lawsuit alleges that Combs delayed paying the rest of the money because the LAPD named Sabatino a person of interest in the murder of Wallace. Sabatino was scheduled to meet with Wallace on the night of the murder but never showed up. The lawsuit also said that Combs was worried about the potential negative publicity created when the public found out he paid a person of interest in the killing of the Notorious B.I.G.
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Sabatino was later incarcerated on unrelated charges, where he remains today, and the murder of Wallace has yet to be solved. While members of law enforcement tend to use the terms “suspect” and “person of interest” interchangeably, Sabatino was never formally charged with a crime in the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. Although Combs told police he didn’t feel Sabatino was involved in the Wallace murder, Sabatino says he feared Combs could potentially change his story to implicate him. Neither Combs’ nor Sabatino’s lawyers have publicly commented on the lawsuit.
