After hinting that he wouldn't be responding to Eminem's diss bars on Fat Joe's new album, Nick Cannon decided that it was ultimately worth it to go at the legendary lyricist with his own battle lines. Bringing The Black Squad along to jump him on "The Invitation," Cannon was also joined by Suge Knight, who recorded a spoken word intro and outro from prison. People were surprised to see the iconic rap figure on the record and, according to an entertainment lawyer, Suge may even be set to make a decent chunk of change from his contributions.
It's unclear whether Nick Cannon and Suge Knight agreed on a royalty percentage for the featured introduction but, in a new report by Page Six, one lawyer states that the man can potentially walk away with some good money at the end of it. Kurt Dahl, who works for a Vancouver law firm, notes that Knight does stand to make some income from the song but it's all based on the percentage he communicated with Cannon.
"There are three questions that come up for me," said Dahl regarding "The Invitation." "First and foremost, does Nick Cannon have the right to use this recording? I’m gonna presume yes, so that seems like a non-issue. The second question is: Is this songwriting; should it be afforded songwriting credit? And that is sort of a question of degree in terms of what constitutes songwriting, and the law isn’t crystal-clear on this. But any contribution to lyrics, melody, or the actual composition of the music usually counts as songwriting. The third question I would ask is, ‘Is he registered as a performer on the master [recording]?’ Because he may be a performer rather than a songwriter, and that’s a lot more clear. That includes producers, and assuming they logged his contributions a certain way, he could see income from that, though it comes more from the master than the composition.”
On the official audio uploaded to YouTube, Suge Knight is listed as a featured performer, meaning that he likely earned himself a spot on the official credits of the song. If you haven't yet, have a listen below to "The Invitation."