It appears that producer/rapper Jermaine Dupri is facing more financial problems. This week he was hit with a lawsuit in Atlanta, Georgia for failing to pay his child support after he was ordered to by Judge Margaret Dorsey, who is a court judge in Fulton County.

According to her ruling, Dupri was supposed to pay $2,500 per month plus an additional $7,500 to the mother of his seven month old daughter. The mother, Sarai Jones, has not received any payments. The ruling was issued after a court-ordered paternity test revealed that he was the father of the child.

In addition to this lawsuit, Dupri has been facing other financial issues. He currently owes the State of Georgia over $493,000 in back taxes based on his income for 2007. His mansion in Atlanta was set to be auctioned off this month for failure to pay his mortgage and property taxes. The mansion is estimated to be worth $2.5 million. However, the auction was called off before it could take place.

In 1993, he formed his own record label, So So Def Recordings, which was home to several major hip hop and R&B artists in the industry today. Under his label, Dupri has created and produced several hit songs and albums for well-known artists and music groups such as Usher, Bow Wow, Jagged Edge, Da Brat, Xscape, and Mariah Carey.

Aside from producing, he has also had a successful rap career. He has released two albums and is currently planning to release a new album this year. He also has been featured on several hit songs for other artists showcasing his rapping skills.

At this time, there has not been a comment from Dupri or his lawyer on this matter.

After being charged with gun possession, rapper Lil Wayne faces another lawsuit over the use of a beat for his 2008 hit “Mrs. Officer”. The song, assisted and produced by Bobby-V, is claimed to contain the beat that was created and used by another rapper Michael “Mali Boy” Bradford. In 2009, the lawsuit was filed charging Lil Wayne to have used the beat in 2008 which was also reworked by producer Deezle for a song called “Popeye” for Lil Wayne’s breakthrough album “Tha Carter III”.

Now things got worse for the Young Money rapper as he could be looking at a very sizable penalty for using the song. Bradford has hired expert musicologist Dr. Felicia M. Miyakawa of Middle Tennessee State University to testify on the validity of his lawsuit. Bradford’s team is insisting that the beat was so blatantly copied that even the average listener can tell the similarity between Mrs. Officer and the original. Part of the issue isn’t so much the masking of the beats but the growing exposure of hip-hop music to audiences. People are catching on more simply because they are hearing more.

Sampling of beats is nothing new in hip-hop – from the first beats of Sugar Hill Gang and Run D.M.C., there were people who have taken beats, but in most cases those beats have been changed and perfected in order to hide the source material.