Jay-Z remains silent year after being accused of copying former gangster photo

Jay-Z has yet to respond to allegations levelled by gangster-turned-actor Dave Courtney who accused him of copying his famous photo for one of his album covers.

Courtney, who died at the age of 64 on Monday, criticized the US rapper for using his photo for "Blueprint" in a YouTube video last year, according to mirror.co.uk.

The publication reported that Dave's photo is said to have inspired Jay-Z's 2001 Blueprint album front cover.

It said the picture was taken when Dave delivered a speech at Oxford Union – a debating society at the University of Oxford.

Courtney's YouTube may not have created the desired results for him but the news articles based on his video are expected to pile pressure on Jay-Z to come up with an explanation or at least give Dave his credit.

Dave had his life documented by photographs, which went on to be featured in a book called The Firm.

"In this book, there is a photograph of me – an aerial photograph that was taken from the balcony of me addressing the Oxford Union. I am sitting on the corner of a table. It is a cool picture. But when the book got brought out, Jay-Z actually thought that was a really cool picture because he is an intelligent man, Dave said speaking on YouTube channel Gangster Tales in 2022.

"He actually looked at it like, 'wow there is a convicted felon teaching future parliament. He is the lecturer in the Oxford Union, teaching the next Lord Mayor, Prime Minister, Chief of Police'. He thought that was really funny. So what he did was he did the exact same picture and put his head on it. He put it on the cover of Blueprint, his album which is a f***ing good album. He just changed the head on the picture and put him on it and called it Blueprint.

"My photograph became really famous on the cover of Jay-Z's album. I don't think it is the last you'll hear of that, I think it is gonna raise its head again. Right now he is running around in show business, saying he has done it all down to himself. He actually started off with me on front of his f***ing cover to be honest. It hasn't gone un-noticed by a lot of people."