Liam Payne's father arrives in Buenos Aires days after the pop star's fatal hotel plunge

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The father of former One Direction star Liam Payne arrived in Buenos Aires on Friday to arrange for the return of his son's body to England two days after the famous boy band singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony.

After landing at the Buenos Aires International Airport in the early morning hours, Geoff Payne was photographed emerging in a blue suit from a downtown hotel accompanied by British consular officials. He was hustled by security officers into a sleek van with black-tinted windows.

Payne visited the Buenos Aires morgue to identify his son's body before heading to the local prosecutor's office, which is investigating the case as a matter of protocol, to organize the repatriation of his son's remains, Argentine authorities said. He later stopped at the Casa Sur Hotel where Payne died to collect his son's belongings, where throngs of distraught Argentines had gathered for the third straight day to pay their respects.

A chain of young fans with linked arms maintained effective crowd control as Payne squeezed past the flowers, photos and hand-written cards piled outside the hotel in tribute to his son. He paused at the makeshift memorial, leaning down to pick up a photo of Liam before thanking everyone and disappearing into the hotel.

“I felt sick to my stomach because I couldn’t say goodbye to him,” said Mara Dorf, one of the fans at the scene.

It's the first time that any of Payne's family members have been seen publicly since the star's sudden death, which set off a global outpouring of grief and emotion from major pop industry figures and diehard One Direction fans. The shock hit particularly hard at home, with his family saying in a statement hours after his death that they “are heartbroken.”

“Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul,” it said. “We are supporting each other the best we can as a family and ask for privacy and space at this awful time.”

In media interviews over the years, Payne had expressed gratitude and affection for his auto mechanic father and nurse mother, describing them as hard-working and supportive. Both parents made cameos in “One Direction: This Is Us,” the 2013 concert documentary about the popular boy band.

“When I see him on stage I absolutely burst with pride, but we do miss him so much,” Payne's mother, Karen, said at one point in the film.

The 31-year-old singer's final hours at the Casa Sur Hotel in Palermo, a trendy neighborhood of Buenos Aires, remain murky as Argentine prosecutors say he appeared to have excessively consumed drugs and alcohol. The prosecution cited investigators who found Payne's hotel room a mess with what appeared to be narcotics and alcohol strewn about broken objects and furniture.

It remains unclear whether Payne intentionally jumped or accidentally fell from the third floor. The autopsy performed a few hours after his death showed he died from the plunge, which caused “multiple trauma” and “internal and external bleeding” in the skull, chest and abdomen and limbs. The results of toxicology reports are pending.

Investigators said that there were no signs of anyone else being involved in his death, citing a lack of defensive wounds on Payne's body that also indicates he did not try to protect himself from the fall. The prosecutor's report said Payne could have fallen into a state of semi-consciousness or unconsciousness.

In the media frenzy over the case, the gossip and celebrity news site TMZ had drawn particular backlash for publishing a cropped image that purported to show Payne’s body, with his identifying tattoos, sprawled on a wooden deck after his fall.

The site later pulled the image under a torrent of criticism. But the fallout continued on Friday when the Girls Aloud singer Cheryl — Payne's former girlfriend and the mother of his son, Bear — posted a powerful statement on Instagram in implicit response.

“What is troubling my spirit most is that one day Bear will have access to the abhorrent reports and media exploitation we have seen in the past two days,” she wrote. “Please give Liam the little dignity he has left in the wake of his death to rest in some peace at last.”

Associated Press journalist Christian Kovadloff in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.

Fans of former One Direction singer Liam Payne grieve outside Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Geoff Payne, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, visits a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

Geoff Payne, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, touches a gel bracelet hanging on a picture of his son while visiting a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Geoff Payne, left, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, visits a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

Geoff Payne, right, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, visits a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

Geoff Payne, center, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, is escorted by police officers as he arrives to the Casa Sur Hotel where his son fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Fans of former One Direction singer Liam Payne stand outside the hotel where he was found dead after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Police restrain fans gathering outside the hotel where former One Direction singer Liam Payne was found dead after he fell from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Geoff Payne, the father of the late ex-One Direction singer Liam Payne, leaves his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, two days after his son died, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

Fans of former One Direction singer Liam Payne gather at the Obelisk to honor him one day after he was found dead at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

FILE - One Direction members, from left, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne perform on NBC's "Today" show, Nov. 13, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

Fans of former One Direction singer Liam Payne gather at the Obelisk to honor him one day after he was found dead at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

An ambulance carrying the body former One Direction singer Liam Payne leaves the hotel where he was found dead after he fell from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

FILE - One Direction members, from right, Liam Payne and Harry Styles perform on ABC's "Good Morning America" at Rumsey Playfield/SummerStage on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

A picture of former One Direction singer Liam Payne sits surrounded by flowers and candles as fans gather outside the hotel where he was found dead after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Geoff Payne, the father of the late ex-One Direction singer Liam Payne, center, leaves his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, two days after his son died, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Miami's 2 Live Crew helped redraw the legal landscape around what hip-hop could be, pushing the boundaries of free speech and taste with their provocative and sexually explicit recordings that led to landmark court decisions protecting the rights of artists.

But for decades the hip-hop legends haven’t had legal control over their iconic discography, after giving up their rights to the records in bankruptcy proceedings that followed their legal fights in the 1990s.

Now a jury verdict is paving the way for surviving members of the group, and heirs of the two who have since died, to retake five of their early albums following a yearslong copyright dispute with a record company. The company is in the process of appealing.

“We won,” 2 Live Crew member Luther Campbell, also known as Uncle Luke, said in a video posted to social media after Wednesday's decision. “All the albums! We got them all back!”

The copyright case was brought by Lil’ Joe Records, which bought the rights to 2 Live Crew's albums after the group's record company filed for bankruptcy in 1995.

In 2020, the members of 2 Live Crew and the heirs notified Lil' Joe that they were terminating its copyrights and that ownership of the albums would revert to the artists. In response, Lil' Joe sued, arguing that it retained the copyrights under the bankruptcy agreement.

The federal jury in Florida decided in favor of 2 Live Crew and the heirs.

“Our team is proud to have been part of this historic trial,” attorney Scott Burroughs said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Our overwhelming and total victory at trial will hopefully serve as a beacon to encourage other artists to brave the legal process to recover their copyrights.”

Richard Wolfe, an attorney representing Lil’ Joe, disputed the group’s claims, saying the terms of the bankruptcy mean his client retains all the rights. He said the battle is not over.

“It’s round two of a 10-round fight,” Wolfe said. “We have always said this case is not going not be decided at the trial court level. It’s going to be decided at the appellate level or possibly the Supreme Court level.”

Among the records at issue is the 1989 release “As Nasty As They Wanna Be”, which includes the tracks “Me So Horny” and “The F— Shop.” Law enforcement officials in South Florida considered it so scandalous, they arrested a record store owner for selling it.

Campbell and fellow 2 Live Crew member Christopher Wong Won, or Fresh Kid Ice, were also arrested on obscenity charges after performing songs from the album. In 1992 a federal appeals court overturned a court ruling that found the album was obscene.

Also at stake is the track “Pretty Woman,” which sampled the 1964 Roy Orbison classic. A dispute over 2 Live Crew’s remix of the song went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in 1994 that the group’s parody of the original constituted fair use.

The first of those rulings was a resounding victory for free expression that transcends rap, according to University of Richmond professor Erik Nielson, an expert on hip-hop and the law who grew up listening to 2 Live Crew as a kid. And the second helped bolster a foundational element of the genre's sound: remixing older music to forge something new.

“It's hard to overstate the significance of these rulings and the role of 2 Live Crew in carving out certain spaces for artistic expression,” Nielson said.

Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

FILE - Luther Campbell, aka Luke Skyywalker, lead singer of the rap group 2 Live Crew is surrounded by a sea of microphones after meeting other band members at Miami International Airport, June 11, 1990. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)