According to Billboard, the estate of the late MF Doom has allegedly sued his former label manager, Eothen “Egon” Alapatt, for allegedly stealing the rapper’s 31 songwriting notebooks.  The notebooks contained songs from Operation Doomsday, Madvillany, MM… Food as well as other un-released songs. Alapatt allegedly admitted that he had MF Doom’s notebooks, but MF Doom’s Estate claims that the former label manager allegedly refused to return the notebooks.

The alleged lawsuit was filed in a California federal court on Tuesday, October 24. However, fans of MF Doom were made aware of the alleged songwriting notebook theft back in March.

MF Doom’s widow shared alleged emails between her late husband and his former label manager to her Instagram account, allegedly stating: “Egon Give the Notebooks Back” and allegedly encouraged her fans to rally around the MF Doom Estate and its alleged struggles to allegedly reclaim the rapper’s notebooks.

Eothen Alapatt, aka Egon, worked with MF Doom as the label manager of Stones Throw Records. He was also the former manager of Doom-collaborator and producer Madlib and is the founder of Now Again Records.

According to Billboard, Eothen Alpatt alleges that “the notebooks [are to] be “donated to a university or government archive” or a “museum or other institution of [Alapatt’s] choosing,” even though doing so is [allegedly] contrary to his estate’s wishes. According to the alleged lawsuit against Egon for his alleged songwriting notebook theft, “[the notebooks] were intended by DOOM to be secret and confidential.”

The background behind the alleged lawsuit against Eothen Alapatt for his alleged songwriting notebook theft traces back to 2010. In 2010, when MF Doom traveled to the UK for his performances, it was reported that the notebooks were allegedly left behind in the rapper’s Los Angeles studio. Alapatt allegedly took the rapper’s notebooks six years later.

The lawsuit claims that Eothen Alpatt allegedly did not discuss his alleged acquisition of the rapper’s notebooks with MF Doom. The former label manager also allegedly lied about his alleged notebook theft when MF Doom allegedly asked him about where the notebooks were.

In 2020, Eothen Alapatt allegedly made an offer to allegedly send the rapper and his family alleged content of what was written in the rapper’s notebooks. The rapper allegedly denied this alleged offer. In October of that year, weeks before the MF Doom’s death, Alapatt allegedly sent the rapper alleged hard drives with alleged large format scans of his alleged stolen notebooks. However, the recipients of the alleged scans are yet to be uncovered. The lawsuit alleges that Alapatt allegedly spoke to potential clients, allegedly including hip-hop archivists.

The alleged lawsuit filed against Eothen Alapatt allegedly stated that he “[was allegedly] infringing on his estate’s intellectual property, which is now held by his business entity, Gas Drawls, by [allegedly] creating and [allegedly] disseminating unlawful copies of DOOM’s lyrics.” Furthermore, the alleged lawsuit alleges that Alapatt “has [allegedly] professed that he ‘does not intend to publish’ the unauthorized digital copies he made, [but] he [allegedly] does not have to ‘publish’ the copies of his infringing copies to be liable. Regardless, [DOOM’s estate] alleges that Alapatt actually shared the copies of the notebook he made with others.”

The alleged lawsuit filed against Eothen Alapatt includes claims of alleged fraud, alleged conversion, alleged unjust enrichment, alleged constructive trust and alleged declaratory relief. A jury trial is to be commenced.

In July of this year, Leeds Hospital issued an apology discussing the inquiry circulating the death of MF Doom. The rapper passed away in October of 2020.