abstract
| - %22Big Pimpin'%22 is the fifth and final single from rapper Jay-Z's fourth album Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter. It features rapping by Southern hip hop group UGK as well as production by Timbaland.The song by Jay-Z was based loosely around Tha Dogg Pound's major hit Big Pimpin', which was released in 1997.Timbaland samples %22Khosara Khosara%22, composed by Baligh Hamdi of Egypt in the mid-20th century and originally recorded by the famous Egyptian vocalist Abdel Halim Hafez. The sampled version of %22Khosara Khosara%22 was arranged and performed by Hossam Ramzy, and can be heard on a CD compilation entitled, %22The Best of Bellydance from Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey%22, an album that also contains another song that Timbaland sampled for the Petey Pablo track, %22Raise Up%22. In 2007, the song sparked controversy when copyright co-owner Osama Ahmed Fahmy filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Federal Court, alleging that Timbaland illegally replayed portions of %22Khosara Khosara%22 note-for-note. Jay-Z, Timbaland, Linkin Park and EMI Music Inc. were among the defendants named in the lawsuit. (Linkin Park was included because the track was also mashed up with their song %22Papercut%22 on the collaborative EP Collision Course in 2004). The Linkin Park mash-up was entitled %22Big Pimpin/Papercut%22.This latest lawsuit follows an August (2007) decision by a California judge to dismiss another lawsuit by Ahab Joseph Nafal, who claimed Big Pimpin' infringed the copyright on Khosara Khorasa. Lawyers for EMI Records argued the 50-year-old track was governed by the 1909 Copyright Act, AllHipHop.com reports.%22Big Pimpin'%22 was the most commercially successful single from Jay-Z's fourth album, as it reached #18 on The Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Rhythmic Top 40 chart. In Rolling Stone's updated 2010 list of %22The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time%22, the song ranked at #467. Despite the song's performance, Jay-Z later revealed he regretted the song's lyrics claiming that, %22Some [lyrics] become really profound when you see them in writing. Not %22Big Pimpin.%22 That's the exception. It was like, I can't believe I said that. And kept saying it. What kind of animal would say this sort of thing? Reading it is really harsh.%22 Katy Perry covered the song during her 2011/12 California Dreams Tour. The cast of The Big Bang Theory made a flashmob during the live taping of an episode, featuring the song as well as others.
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