Tupac Estate, Hole, Petty Sue Universal Music Over Destruction of Epic Songs

The Tupac Estate, Tom Petty's ex-wife, Hole and countless others involved in the most epic songs in history are suing Universal Music Group, claiming UMG screwed them out of more than $100 million by secretly pocketing money it got after a fire destroyed hundreds of thousands of master recordings.

It's a class action lawsuit and could include the likes of Elton John and many others.

Here's the backstory ... a fire destroyed as many as 500,000 master recordings in UMG's archive vaults on the Universal Studios backlot warehouse.

The suit alleges there was a deal where UMG and the artists split profits from master recordings 50/50.

UMG told Billboard shortly after the fire, "We had no loss, thankfully. We moved most of what was formerly stored there earlier this year to our other facilities." The suit claims that was a big, fat lie.

According to the lawsuit, UMG filed insurance claims of at least $150 MILLION based on the fact the master recordings were destroyed ... and they did not share a penny of that with the artists. The suit claims UMG intentionally tried to deceive the artists by concealing the payments.

The suit asks for more than $100 mil. No word on other artists who may join the class action.