JAY Z IS GETTING SUED BY AN EGYPTIAN FOR A SONG RELEASED IN 1999

Jay Z is being sued by the heir of an Egyptian composer, who claims the rapper had no right to use a flute sample in hip-hop classic Big Pimpin'.

In the latest twist in a long-running copyright saga over the 1999 song - which enthusiastically praises casual sex - a jury trial is set to begin on October 13 in Los Angeles against the rap mogul.

Released on Jay Z’s fourth album: Vol 3…Life And Times of S. Carter, the track opens with a Middle Eastern-sounding flute as the rapper declares: ‘It's big pimpin', baby’.

The flute sample, which duels with the beat throughout the song, turned out to be composed in 1957 by Baligh Hamdy for the Egyptian movie Khosara, Khosara.

The song’s producer Timbaland has said he found the Egyptian song without any identification on a CD and that he believed it was in the public domain.

And Jay Z's side quickly tried to defuse the controversy when, in 2001, it paid $100,000 to the label EMI Arabia, which said it had rights over Khosara, Khosara.

The label shared the payout with descendants of Hamdy, who died in 1993.

But the composer's nephew and heir Osama Ahmed Fahmy filed a lawsuit in US court in 2007 saying that the deal was irrelevant under Egyptian law.

Meanwhile, Beyonce is facing a similar lawsuit from the Hungarian Roma singer Mitsou over an acappella snippet that starts her hit song Drunk In Love.