Cam'Ron Stole Iconic Harlem Photo For Mixtape Cover: Lawsuit

HARLEM, NY — Harlem-born rapper Cam'Ron is being sued in federal court for using an iconic photograph taken in the 1980s as cover art for his 2017 mixtape "The Program" without getting permission from the photographer.

Photographer Ellis Reed took the photograph known as “Harlem street scene. Children playing in an abandoned and junked car," in 1987 while working on his book of photography "Black in America," which includes shots from the Crown Heights race riots and the Million Man March. The photo is considered one of Reed's best works in a career that has brought him numerous awards and teaching positions at Columbia University, New York University and Harvard.

The photo, which depicts a group of black boys standing atop and inside a broken-down car in a vacant lot, was even used as the cover art for Reed's retrospective "Eli Reed: A Long Walk Home."

But in 2017, the photo graced another cover. This time it appeared on Cam'Ron's album "The Program" with the rapper's name superimposed in all-capitalized pink letters on the image's bottom corner.

Reed claims Cam'Ron never approached the photographer for permission to use the image and has been profiting off his intellectual property through album and merchandise sales, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.

"He has displayed the Photograph at the point of sale of the mixtape, plastered the Photograph all over merchandise, created videos on his social media pages featuring the Photograph, and even promoted his collaboration with Reebok using the Photograph, all without the least regard for Reed’s intellectual property rights," the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit claims that Cam'Ron "sees no problem exploiting the works of others to sell his own music and merchandise," despite the rapper's litigious history regarding credit for his own work. Throughout his career, Cam'Ron has sued artists such as Kanye West and R. Kelly for not crediting him on songs and sued companies such as Nike for using his songs in advertising.

Reed's lawyers claims in the lawsuit that Cam'Ron's indifference in stealing his photo for an album cover is "startlingly hypocritical." Magnum Photos International, the agency that represents Reed, is also listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Under Reed's contract with the agency, all authorized uses of his photos must include Reed's full name and credit to Magnum.

The photographer and his lawyers first attempted to reach out to Cam'Ron in February of 2018 to resolve the issue, but were forced to file the lawsuit after negotiations proved "unsuccessful." The rapper, through his lawyers, claimed he never asked for permission to use the photograph because it's "in black-and-white, and was presumed to be old and in the public domain," according to Reed's lawsuit.

The photographer is seeking a court order from a federal judge that would bar Cam'Ron and his business partners from using the image for any uses such as marketing and merchandise and an award of all damages and profits made through the use of the infringed copyright.

Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images