Lil Wayne sued for copyright infringement

Rex Features

Lil Wayne and New Orleans rapper Birdman are reportedly being sued by a man who claims that they used his vocals without permission on 2006 joint album Like Father, Like Son.

Thomas Marasciullo alleges that spoken-word recordings of his which the pair asked him to put to tape were later used on the records, reports BBC News.

Marasciullo said that he first came across the "Italian-style spoken-word recordings" when his daughter discovered offending track 'Respect' while trying to buy a ringtone version of the Aretha Franklin song of the same name.

His son also became entangled in the case after being fired from a recording engineer job at Birdman's label Cash Money Records once Marasciullo started demanding payment, according to the lawsuit.

Marasciullo is suing the stars' company, plus various music distribution outlets for unspecified damages.