Bus driver sues Warner Brothers, NBC, others over writing rights on 2Pac’s “Dear mama”

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A bus driver identified as Terence Thomas has filed a lawsuit against several mega-corporations, including Warner Brothers, NBC, Fox, Hulu, and Disney over claims that he was deprived of royalties for co-writing 2Pac’s “Dear mama.”

Thomas who is also an entertainment enthusiast (disc jockey), and known professionally as DJ Master Tee, in the lawsuit filed in New York and dated Friday November 17, is arguing that producer Tony Pizarro and Universal Music Group, a record label conglomerate “conspired” to keep him from obtaining his rightful royalties as a co-writer of the song.

He says (in documents obtained), “A self-serving group, led by an upstart music producer, Tony D. Pizarro, conspired with executives at Interscope Records and Universal Music Group (UMG), misappropriated Master Tee’s publishing copyright and master recording copyright and assumed the identity of writer/publisher of Dear Mama’s music.”

Thomas is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and is requesting a jury trial while also suing the production companies that were responsible for bringing the documentary of the same name to the small screen.

Recall that in April, Dear Mama reportedly became the most-watched premiere episode for an unscripted series in FX’s 28-year history after it premiered on FX on April 21.

In a statement, Nick Grad, president of FX Entertainment had said, “It’s only fitting that Allen Hughes’s definitive piece on Tupac and Afeni Shakur delivered a record performance for us and it speaks to Tupac’s enduring legacy. Allen’s examination of Tupac viewed through the prism of his mother Afeni is a fascinating take that really gets beneath the education and experience that shaped his life and inspired him to become one of the greatest artists ever.”

The docuseries is about the dynamic mother-son relationship between Afeni Shakur, who was a revolutionary and a member of the Black Panther Party, and 2Pac, who is arguably one of the greatest rappers of all time.

Dear Mama was directed by Allen Hughes, who has directed legendary films such as 1993’s Menace II Society and 1995’s Dead Presidents, as well as the four-part Netflix docuseries The Defiant Ones, which tells the story of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.