A judge has dismissed a copyright lawsuit against rapper 50 Cent.

Shadrach Winstead accused the Candy Shop hitmaker of stealing excerpts from his autobiography, The Preacher’s Son – But the Streets Turned Me Into A Gangster, for his album, Before I Self-Destruct, and a companion film by the same name.

A lower court dismissed Winstead’s copyright infringement claims, but he filed an appeal and the case was reheard before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

A three-judge panel upheld the ruling this week, insisting the themes in the author’s book are common in hip-hop culture and not entitled to copyright protection, according to the Wall Street Journal. (MC/WSJ/KL)