Rap Legend MF DOOM’s Estate Fights for His Notebooks in Court

The late rap legend MF DOOM's notebooks, which contain his lyrics for some of his classic albums and unreleased songs, are the subject of a lawsuit filed by his widow and estate. They accuse his former A&R, Eothen "Egon" Alapatt, of stealing 31 notebooks from the rapper and refusing to return them. Jasmine Dumile Thompson, who was married to MF DOOM, and Gas Drawls – the company that owns the rapper's intellectual property rights – are suing Alapatt for violating their copyright, committing fraud, lying and profiting unjustly.

Thompson alleges in the lawsuit that Alapatt took the notebooks without MF DOOM's permission or knowledge. The notebooks have the rapper's handwritten lyrics for songs from 1999's 'Operation Doomsday', 2004's 'Madvillainy' and 'MM…FOOD', as well as other creative ideas that were never released. According to The Fader, the lawsuit also names 50 unknown "Does", who Thompson thinks were working with Alapatt. The lawsuit claims that Alapatt has admitted to having the notebooks but does not want to give them back.

Alapatt allegedly wants to "donate" the notebooks to a "university or government archive" or a "museum or other institution of [Alapatt’s] choosing", which goes against the wishes of MF DOOM's estate. The lawsuit states that "[The notebooks] were intended by DOOM to be secret and confidential." The problems with the rapper's belongings started in 2010 when MF DOOM went to the UK and could not come back to the US because of immigration issues (he was born in Hounslow). The lawsuit says that the 31 notebooks were left at his studio in Los Angeles and Alapatt "took unlawful possession" of them about six years later.

"Alapatt never consulted with DOOM about his acquisition of the notebooks and took advantage of DOOM’s being out the country to obtain them," the lawsuit says. Alapatt reportedly lied about having the notebooks before later saying that he had taken them as a payment for a $12,500 debt that MF DOOM owed him for rent on the studio.

Before the rapper died in 2020, Alapatt allegedly offered to send photocopies of the notebooks to MF DOOM. The rapper's estate says that in October of that year, Alapatt sent a hard drive with hi-res scans of the notebooks' pages. The lawsuit argues that the scans show that Alapatt was infringing on their intellectual property by copying and sharing MF DOOM's work. The suit also claims that Alpatt was talking to archivists and collectors to sell the notebooks or copies of them.

"Although Alapatt has professed that he ‘does not intend to publish’ the unauthorized digital copies he made, he does not have to ‘publish’ the copies of his infringing copies to be liable. Regardless, [DOOM’s estate] alleges that Alapatt actually shared the copies of the notebook he made with others," the suit says.