As any deep pocket client of Alex Spiro will tell you, the high-profile trial attorney often executes a maximum impact strategy of very targeted attacks on the case against said client, as well as the planting of legal landmines to blow up the other side down the line.

Z have denied the lawsuit's allegations. In a then-burgeoning hip-hop scene, the fellow New York natives rose to prominence in the East Coast rap world through the mid-1990s. Their music tapped into hard knocks and entrepreneurial ambitions – but both wanted more than album sales and positive reviews.