It's official, John Cena is Vanilla Ice.
 

From PWInsider:

A number of media sources have picked up on the lawsuit filed against John Cena, World Wrestling Entertainment, Sony Music, Stephanie Music (WWE's music publishing company) and several other entities by members of hip hop group The M.O.P. that was first broken last week in the PWInsider.com Elite section during my audio hotline. The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court of New York earlier this month after communications between the two sides ended in mid-September.

The M.O.P. are upset that a sample of their song "Ante Up" was used in the "My Time is Now (John Cena Theme)" song on Cena's hip hop CD from a few years back and subsequently by World Wrestling Entertainment for Cena's ring entrance theme, on DVDs, CDs, PPV, and ringtones.

Two members of the group, Jamal Grinnage and Eric Murray are claiming that they turned down WWE's request to sample the song and then someone working for Next Level Publishing, a company owned by the third member of M.O.P, Daryl Pittman, then gave clearance when the person in question (who identified himself as the President of the company, but was in actuality just an office worker) did not have the rights to do so. The lawsuit was filed after several letters back and forth to different entities involved resulted in an attorney for World Wrestling Entertainment claiming they had indeed correctly licensed the music to be sampled via Next Level.

Grinnage and Murray, claiming they own 66.6% of the rights to "Ante Up" are requesting damages, that they be ruled the proper owner of the song and that all DVDs, CDs, etc. using the sampled music be recalled and destroyed.

The lawsuit story was picked up yesterday by TMZ.com and is now making the rounds

ROFL, was gonna post that, but didn't know how

HAHA

Rappers getting butt hurt over someone else sampling their beats.

Oh the irony...

I really hope they erase that song like it never existed!

Go back to Basic Thuganomics

Agreed, that would make him a little less annoying.

Don't fuck with us.

Or a clean version like Akon. Don't love with us.

I like Cena's current theme.

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Wouldn't sound good for a theme. It's too fast, he'll pull something spazzing on the ramp.

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lol where is the sample that Cena stole?

Oh ok, nevermind.

Suge Knight's gonna hang Cena by his ankles outside of the 16th floor of a hotel now.

I actually like Cena's theme music. It's been the best thing about him for like the past 3 years.

Here's how I see things...
It should be Jamal Grinnage and Eric Murray taking Daryl Pittman to court.
Daryl Pittman was the one to give WWE the go ahead, but he didn't have the right to do so. Cena should go back to Basic Thuganomics (or another song), but pay nothing to the band for their sample.

The group is called "M.O.P.", not "The M.O.P." for the record..

They are awesome..

Pronounce a guitar riff for me..

Exactly my thoughts when I read it. If the above story is true then WWE did everything they needed to.

That song 'Ante Up" isn't bad at all. And I don't listen to rap.

M.O.P. have a big following of people who mostly listen to rock cause of their stage show.. They always have a mosh pit and stage dive and what not..

Cold as Ice

:cool:

I won't listen to Hip Hop because... well, it sucks.

But, from what I understand the only part that Cena apparently ripped off was the beginning where somebody says... 'BRRRRRR-ABADOOOO!!!!"

I think it's funny and it's not worth going to court over. If they do win the lawsuit against Cena, Fred Flinstone should take them to court for the resemblance to "Yabba Dabba doooo!!!"

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Classic..

Just because you can not understand what they are saying doesn't mean other people don't..

What is different in what they scream at the beginning of Ante Up, and what Ozzy laughs then yelps at the beginning of Crazy Train??

Not a God damn thing but you don't hear alot of Hip Hop fans hating on that..

Seriousl;y, I feel like alot of you assholes have to constantly try to prove something about Hip Hop in general and come across looking more like close minded fools than anything else..

Just like King of Oldschool making cracks about sampling.. Like 90% of rock riffs have been used before.. Same with drum beats..

You are not better than anyone else cause you don't like Hip Hop..

Get over yourselves..

What does that have anything to do with you claiming you can't pronounce it or whatever you were trying to say??

I think he's trying to say how can a law suit being put against somebody for using a word in a song that can't even be pronounced correctly. Pretty horrible arguement, tbh. Pretty obvious they took it directly from that song, no matter what sound it was.

That is the point.. If someone had used a laugh and yelp like the one in Crazy Train, I'm sure there would be a lawsuit..

[color="silver"] All this over merely stating its a sound that is either impossible, or very difficult to write out/pronounce.

Then you went away from the issue asking to pronounce a guitar riff, which is impossible since its not vocal, then you went off to something else.

I dont see the argument you are trying to make here, all I meant by what I said is its a sound that I dont think can even be spelt.

What does pronouncing a guitar riff have to do with not being able to pronounce a vocal noise?

Quit while you're behind, man.

I didn't read the post stating that it wasn't the beat in question..

When I first read your post about pronouncing it, I thought we were talking about the beat..

Why does it matter if you can pronounce it or not is my question?? You stated that like you were looking down on Hip Hop.. If a band made a song where the singer was violently growled over a drop g or whatever Korn plays in, Korn would have a viable law suite for them ripping off Twist, when you can not pronounce a single word in that entire song, minus "twist"..

That's pretty much what I am getting at.. Alot of rock bands have used crazy shit in their songs.. If this had been about any one of those songs, you would not have had the same reaction to it..

Don't try to lie and say you would have..

Freddie Mercury used to sing a song called "Mustapha."

I think it's pretty clear that rockers sing nonsense words, too. I mean, "Ibrahim?" "Allah?" :wtf:

KK, please tell me you're kidding.

That song uses a Middle Eastern language - not exactly sure which one.

I wish the Kliq was still around to fuck with Cena.

Also:
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No, I am not kidding. I most certainly have never heard the word "Allah" before. Ever.

(I chose a word that I thought would be so common as to make certain people would know I was joking. And for the record, it's two "Middle Eastern" languages and a few words in English)

Not everyone is cool enough to base their musical opinions on a failed mid 90's WCW stable, St. Jimmy..

Strangely I've never connected the two before this topic which is weird because I used to love that song especially the remix they did with a female on it.

MOP WARRIORS FOR LIFE

Busta Rhymes now
What you want now?
What you want now?!

Legally, WWE are kinda fucked on this as long as MOP can demonstrate that they did indeed "secure the rights" through an office worker. They shouldn't even be fighting this, because their own paper trail will fuck them. Of course, this is the same WWE who decided to piss off the World Wildlife Fund, who had a deal with them in good faith, so I expect them not only to fight this, but to burn all bridges in the process.

And make an angle out of it. I can see it now, WWE vs Rap. Could be like that old WCW angle where it was Country vs. Rap music.

Come to think of it, they could cite parody laws. I mean, Cena is clearly a spoof, so while they would have to compensate them financially for the sample used in the song, they would be as above suits as Weird Al is.