Most people in jail seek out some clean underwear, an occasional visit from friends and family, and an escape path from anal rapists.
James Sabatino, however, has bigger aspirations. The currently-incarcerated Sabatino, a former consultant for Diddy's Bad Boy Records, has filed a lawsuit against Diddy. Sabatino claims that he recorded 17 minutes of vocals and 90 minutes of video footage with Notorious B.I.G. in 1994. After Biggie's death in 1997, Diddy purchased the recordings from Sabatino for $200,000. However, according to the lawsuit, Diddy only paid $25,000 of that money.
So this lawsuit should be for around $175,000, right?
Nope. Sabatino is suing for $19 million for "actual and punitive damages." How does he come up with that figure? Let's assume Diddy owes him the aforementioned $175,000. Throw in interest and late fees, and we're still talking about under $1 million. So did he get $18 million worth of his feelings hurt?
It gets more ridiculous. Sabatino claims he didn't speak out about this dispute earlier because he was worried that Diddy would accuse him of murdering Notorious B.I.G. After B.I.G. was shot in 1997, Sabatino was named as a "person of interest" (a nice way of saying "suspect"), but Diddy told police that Sabatino was not involved. Sabatino was worried that, if he sued, Diddy would change his story and implicate Sabatino in the killing. Nevermind things like obstruction of justice and perjury.
First off, James Sabatino, you are DEFINITELY not getting an invitation to the next White Party. Secondly, even if everything happened just as Sabatino is claiming, $19 million is an insane amount to ask for 90 minutes of video and 17 minutes of studio time. Even if that video had the B.I.G. interview from the "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems" video that we've all seen 8 billion times, it's not worth $19 mil. Fortunately for Diddy, Sabatino is willing to settle for a bar of soap on a string and a birthday cake with a nail file in it.
