Jay Z asks judge to keep criminal past, net worth out of civil trial over song rights: report

Jay Z doesn’t want a California jury to hear about his hard-knock life.

The rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter, has asked a federal court judge to bar testimony about his criminal past – and current high-flying lifestyle – from an upcoming civil trial.

Now a megabuck mogul, the Brooklyn native’s rap sheet includes arrests for weapons charges and a 1999 stabbing.

His lawyers say none of that should figure into his current court case, where he and Tim (Timbaland) Mosley are defending themselves in a civil suit charging they swiped a song sample for the Jay Z smash “Big Pimpin.”

The suit was brought in 2007 by a relative of an Egyptian composer named Baligh Hamdi, who said the tune ripped off Hamdi’s 1960 song “Khosara, Khosara.”

Timbaland has said in court papers that he thought he’d bought the rights.

Despite how long the case has been dragging through the court system, Hamdi’s lawyers didn’t mention they wanted to bring up the records of Jay Z and the other defendants in the case until last month.

“Plaintiff has not identified the purpose of offering Defendants' criminal histories, let alone articulated how the probative value of such evidence substantially outweighs their prejudicial effect. Nor can he: the criminal record is entirely irrelevant and poses an overwhelming risk of biasing the jury against Defendants,” Jay Z’s lawyer said in a recent court filing.

He noted that “none of the defendants have been convicted of a crime within the last ten years,” and said that “Any evidence or argument relating to any of the Defendants' criminal histories should thus be excluded."

He also urged the judge to shoot down any inquiry into his client’s “wealth and resources.”

Hamdi’s lawyers contend those should be fair game, because it would show that Jay Z could have easily afforded a thorough investigation into the title of the song, but he simply didn’t bother to do so.

Jay Z’s lawyer Andrew Bart said that was a bogus argument.

“Of course, the real reason that Plaintiff wants to mention Defendants’ financial condition is to bias the jury against Defendants, emphasize their wealth, and artificially inflate the size of a potential damages award,” Bart wrote in court filings. “Accordingly, even if marginally relevant, this evidence is unduly prejudicial and should be excluded.”

A judge has yet to rule on the dispute, which was first reported by TMZ.

Both Jay Z and Timbaland are expected to testify in the trial, which is slated to start next month.