Back in 1996, Jay Z stormed onto the scene with his debut studio album, “Reasonable Doubt.” This project went on to debut at number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart and is certified platinum in the US. To this day, it’s regarded as one of Jay’s best projects of all-time.
The photographer behind Reasonable Doubt’s album cover, Jonathan Mannion, is now facing a huge lawsuit from Jay though, according to TMZ. Mannon and his company, Jonathan Mannion Photography LLC, have reportedly been using Jay’s name and image without his consent, on their website.
In addition to this, photos of Jay are reportedly being sold for thousands of dollars. Despite Jay asking Mannion to stop this, the profiting continued. This is after Mannion supposedly asked for tens of millions of dollars to do so. Jay has since said that Mannion is making the “arrogant assumption that because he took those photographs, he can do with them as he pleases.”
“It’s ironic that a photographer would treat the image of a formerly-unknown Black teenager, now wildly successful, as a piece of property to be squeezed for every dollar it can produce. It stops today,” Jay continued.
In this lawsuit, Jay wants to receive all of the profits earned from Mannion’s website, regarding himself. As of now, Mannion has not spoken publicly about this situation.
