MF DOOM's widow sued a former label manager for 31 notebooks of lyrics and got them back in 2025

Daniel Dumile, known as MF DOOM, died at 49. His wife, Jasmine Dumile Thompson, announced it on his Instagram two months later. In 2010 immigration problems kept him from returning to the United States from the United Kingdom, and he left his songwriting notebooks in his Los Angeles studio. The notebooks held material from Operation: Doomsday, Madvillainy and MM..FOOD, plus unreleased ideas. In October 2023 Thompson sued Eothen "Egon" Alapatt, former general manager of Stones Throw Records, for the return of 31 notebooks [?: Mixmag later reported 32]. The suit alleged copyright infringement, fraud and unjust enrichment. It alleged that Alapatt took the notebooks about six years after DOOM left, first denied having them, and later sent scans dated 2018 to 2020. Alapatt's lawyer called the claims "baseless and libellous." His lawyers said the landlord owned the notebooks because rent was unpaid, and that Alapatt bought them from the landlord, who "would have either sold or possibly destroyed" them. In March 2025 DOOM's Instagram announced a confidential settlement. Alapatt returned the notebooks. Thompson said, "we acknowledge that Egon preserved DOOM's invaluable notebooks."