The only album that The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace) released before his death was his 1994 debut Ready To Die. Now, thanks to an allegedly unauthorized sample, sales of that album have been halted.

The AP reports that a jury has found in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit that puts the hip-hop tradition of "sampling" back into the limelight. Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records, the companies who own the rights to the music of legendary group The Ohio Players, sued Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy LLC, Justin Combs Publishing, and Universal Records claiming that the title song of Ready To Die used a sample from the Ohio Players track "Singing In The Morning" without permission.

The estate of The Notorious B.I.G. was originally sued as well but, was later dropped from the lawsuit. A jury agreed with the companies and on Friday, awarded over $4 million in punitive and direct damages to the two companies. As part of the decision, U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell imposed a sales ban that affects both the song and the entire album in any form. This includes not only physical sales but also Internet downloads and radio play. Even though the ban has been handed down, there is no indication of when the ban will start. Although the original version of the album is out of print on Amazon.com, the remastered edition released in 2004 is still available.

The practice of "sampling," which involves using a portion of an already recorded song to create a new one, has been a part of hip-hop since its inception. Most sampling was done without permission in the early days of hip-hop but various court cases over the years have changed things.

After the release of their debut album 3 Feet High And Rising in 1989, De La Soul was sued by 1960's group The Turtles over the unauthorized use of a loop from their song "You Showed Me" on the interlude "Transmitting Live From Mars." In 1991, Warner Bros. Records lost a lawsuit`regarding Biz Markie's use of a portion of music from the Gilbert O'Sullivan song "Alone Again (Naturally)" on his third album I Need A Haircut. One of the more important decisions involving sampling happened in September 2004 when a federal appeals court ruled that artists must pay for every sample, even if the sample is an unrecognizable snippet. The song that brought about the lawsuit was NWA's "100 Miles And Runnin'" which sampled a three-note guitar riff from the Funkadelic song "Get Off Your Ass And Jam."