Heirs to widely sampled funk song bang out royalties settlement on eve of trial

MANHATTAN (CN) — The estate of a 1970s soul-funk songwriter reached a private settlement with an independent record label over the weekend, just before the start of a jury trial over royalties for a piece with a widely sampled drum break that has served as the instrumental backbone for hundreds of songs.

The family of songwriter Roy C. Hammond sued Tuff City Records and label boss Aaron Fuchs in Manhattan federal court in 2021, claiming money was owed to Hammond’s estate, including royalties from his most famous song. “Impeach the President,” a self-released protest funk single by the Honey Drippers, which has been one of the most sampled songs in the history of hip-hop since the genre’s New York City beginning four decades ago.

With the civil case finally set to go before a jury on Monday morning, an attorney for Hammond’s estate advised the Manhattan federal judge presiding over the case shortly before midnight on Friday that the parties had reached a “settlement in principle.”

The details of the agreement were not immediately disclosed publicly, but the estate pointed in court filings to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in outstanding song licensing royalties.

Representatives for the estate did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning, but at a pretrial hearing on Thursday, their attorney Phillip Hamilton told the judge: “Our position has been clear from the outset that Tuff City was taking in 100% of the royalties and they had an obligation to split the royalties 50/50 with the parties.”

The estate claimed in an amended complaint that Fuchs admitted he was withholding Hammond's rightful share but refused to pay and threatened to file bankruptcy to prevent Hammond from recovering any share of the royalties he was due. The label denied this allegation in a court filing answering the complaint.

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams determined in a summary judgment ruling in September 2025 that Tuff City was liable for breaching a 2001 settlement agreement with Hammond by suspending royalty payments in 2019, advancing the issue of damages to go before a jury.

Earlier in the proceedings, Abrams granted the label's motion to dismiss copyright claims, but found the contract claims actionable.

Songwriter Roy C. Hammond died his home in Allendale, South Carolina, in 2020, at 81. The royalties case against Tuff City was filed the following year by Hammond’s estate.

Fuchs and Tuff City then brought counterclaims over breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, unfair competition tortious interference and injunctive relief against the estate.

During a final pretrial conference in Manhattan federal court last week, record label lawyer Hillel Ira Parness told the court, “It is undisputed that royalties are owed from 2019 forward.”

Representatives for Tuff City did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the reported settlement, but Parness said Thursday the parties were “much, much closer than we ever have been” to reaching a settlement.

The two sides of the royalties spat had been working out a potential settlement ahead of trial with U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo, who the estate’s lawyer described as “fantastic.”

“I would never doubt that working with her would be fruitful,” Hamilton said at a pretrial hearing last week.

Abrams, a Barack Obama appointee, also signaled that the dispute was ripe for settlement, while still keeping it on track to go before an eight-person jury.

“This seems to me like a case that should settle,” she said Thursday, offering the parties a private room to hash out the last-minute negotiations.

Jury selection was scheduled to start Monday morning for the week-and-a-half trial, but the Southern District of New York federal courthouse was closed as a blizzard dropped around a foot of snow in Manhattan.

Hammond’s estate intended to play jurors the 1973 “Impeach the President,” along with two examples of songs sampling it — “I Can” by Nas, from 2002; and “Wet Dreamz” by J Cole, from 2014 ­— as examples of derivative sampling, but Abrams overruled the request, finding the “potential probative value” in using the songs as demonstratives was outweighed by potential prejudice to the defendants.

The widely used drum break sample was reportedly first used on a rap song in 1986 by New York City DJ-producer Marley Marl, who used the drum break as the instrumental basis for MC Shan's song "The Bridge."

The drum sample was later used in over 800 songs, according to the database WhoSampled.com, including tracks by Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Nas, LL Cool J, the Wu Tang Clan, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Lil Ugly Mane and most recently, Megan Thee Stallion, who sampled a song that already included the drum break.

Beyond its decadeslong ubiquity as the source of funky drum samples, “Impeach the President” experienced a revival during President Donald Trump’s first term for its lyrics, which originally advocated the impeachment of then–President Richard Nixon.

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