Rapper and founding member of Tupac Shakur's Thug Life group, Big Syke (Tyruss Himes), has had a law suit he brought against Fox Television and XXL Magazine dismissed by a Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles.
Syke filed a defamation of character lawsuit in July 2006 in which he claimed that in July of 2005 Fox's local KTTV television station wrongfully accused him of being involved in the unsolved murder of The Notorious BIG (Christopher Wallace); who was gunned down in Los Angeles March 1997.
Later in October 2005, XXL Magazine ran a similar story that accused Big Syke of helping Death Row CEO Suge Knight assemble a squad of hit men to murder B.I.G in retaliation for the September 1996 murder of Tupac.
Big Syke has denied the stories have any truth and says that he had "absolutely no involvement with the murder of Mr. Wallace." The law suit claimed that the accusations cost the rapper a "lucrative" recording deal with Treacherous Records.
The Superior Court Judge dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that both Fox and XXL's stories were protected under the United States' Constitutional freedom of speech act and that there was no evidence to suggest the media outlets acted maliciously or recklessly disregarded the truth.
"We are appreciative of the time and effort the court put into reviewing the case," Sykes' attorney, Arthur G. Lesmez told the Associated Press. "We're understandably disappointed in the decision and we're evaluating all of our options."
Syke filed a defamation of character lawsuit in July 2006 in which he claimed that in July of 2005 Fox's local KTTV television station wrongfully accused him of being involved in the unsolved murder of The Notorious BIG (Christopher Wallace); who was gunned down in Los Angeles March 1997.
Later in October 2005, XXL Magazine ran a similar story that accused Big Syke of helping Death Row CEO Suge Knight assemble a squad of hit men to murder B.I.G in retaliation for the September 1996 murder of Tupac.
Big Syke has denied the stories have any truth and says that he had "absolutely no involvement with the murder of Mr. Wallace." The law suit claimed that the accusations cost the rapper a "lucrative" recording deal with Treacherous Records.
The Superior Court Judge dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that both Fox and XXL's stories were protected under the United States' Constitutional freedom of speech act and that there was no evidence to suggest the media outlets acted maliciously or recklessly disregarded the truth.
"We are appreciative of the time and effort the court put into reviewing the case," Sykes' attorney, Arthur G. Lesmez told the Associated Press. "We're understandably disappointed in the decision and we're evaluating all of our options."
