Rap group Sugarhill Gang is awarded $3 million in ad suit

A federal jury recently awarded pioneering rap group the Sugarhill Gang nearly $3 million from the Snapple Beverage Corporation and Turner Broadcasting System for unauthorized use of the group's work in an advertising campaign, according to several news reports.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York awarded the group $165,000 in compensatory damages and $2.8 million in punitive damages. A District Court judge granted a summary judgment on behalf of the Sugarhill Gang in June.

The Sugarhill Gang, who filed the lawsuit against Snapple and Turner Broadcasting in 1999, said the images and voices of the group's members were wrongfully used for 1998 advertising tied to the Goodwill Games, which are produced by Goodwill Games Inc., part of the Sports programming and production unit of Turner Broadcasting, the New York Times reported. Snapple was a sponsor of the Goodwill Games.

Members of the rap group maintain that they were told a segment featuring them performing their hit rap song, Rapper's Delight, would air only on closed-circuit monitors during a Goodwill Games promotional event at New York nightclub Studio 54 in 1998. According to the suit, the film later appeared in Snapple advertising.

Snapple and Turner Broadcasting contended that the group had known that the film would be used in television ads for the games.

"We're just evaluating our options right now," said Steven Jarmon, a spokesman for Snapple in White Plains, now part of Cadbury Schweppes, the New York Times reported.

The Sugarhill Gang, founded by Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson, Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright and Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien (who later was replaced by Joey Robinson), changed the face of urban music with its 1979 debut rap song, Rapper's Delight, which sold 2 million copies and topped U.S. music charts. The group also recorded other popular songs, including Apache, 8th Wonder and The Lover in You.