Kid Capri claims Martin sample was unauthorised

Kid Capri has claimed his voice on the TV show Martin was used without his permission.

The DJ and rapper revealed he was never compensated for his alleged contribution to the Martin theme song, which he says uses his voice as a sample.

In an interview with the Bag Fuel podcast, Capri said the popular sitcom's theme song used a sample of his voice from his time on HBO's Def Comedy Jam.

Capri alleged that his signature "Martin!" catchphrase was pulled without his permission.

"They took my voice from Def Comedy Jam, sampled it, put it on the Martin show," Capri explained. "Never got no permission from me, never asked for my rights, nothing. This show been on eight different networks for 30 years. Now if it was a money thing for me, I would been like, 'Yo where's my bread?' I ain't never did that."

He went on to say that before the show's reunion, Tisha Campbell, who played Martin Lawrence's wife Gina Waters-Payne, went on Fox Soul and inquired about whether that was Kid Capri's voice heard on the iconic intro.

Lawrence denied it was, during his own appearance on the show.

"First of all, that was the dumbest s**t to say, everybody know it's me," Capri continued. "Number two, I got videos of this. Number three, all you had to say was, 'Yo Kid, we used your s**t, is it all right?"

It is likely that HBO or one of the production companies behind Def Comedy Jam is the owner of the copyright to the material that was sampled.