2016 looked to be a cooling of tensions between Lil Wayne and his Young Money boss Birdman. And while the two rang in the New Year together, Weezy isn’t done with the lawsuits yet.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the New Orleans rapper filed suit Monday (March 28) claiming he hadn’t been paid properly for profits he claims he should get a piece of for discovering artists like Drake, Nicki Minaj and Tyga.
The suit also alleges that Universal decided to use earnings from those artists to repay itself for a previous $100 million advance it forwarded to YMCMB, a subsidiary of Universal.
“With Universal’s knowledge of Lil Wayne’s rights to partial ownership and profits from those artists,
Universal and Cash Money entered into a series of agreements which, among other things, diverted Lil Wayne’s substantial profits to repay debts of Cash Money,” the suit reads. “As a result, 100% of the profits that should have been paid to Lil Wayne as a result of his ownership of Drake, Nicki Minaj and Tyga records have been seized by Universal to repay debts that were neither incurred by nor were the obligations of Lil Wayne.”
Howard E. King, Wayne’s attorney also expressed the same sentiment in a statement he released after the suit was filed.
“Universal should be grateful and respectful to Lil Wayne for the millions of dollars in distribution fees and profits they have earned on the artists he brought to the company,” his statement reads. “Instead of seizing all of his profits on those artists in a desperate attempt to recoup the tens of millions of dollars they are owed by Cash Money Records.”
Universal released a response of their own claiming they don’t owe what the potential plaintiff is claiming and denied any wrongdoing.
“It should be no surprise that we learned of the lawyer’s complaint through the news media,” a label spokesman told THR. “We don’t intend to dignify this with further public comment except to say that we will vigorously contest it and that the merits of our case will carry the day.”
This most recent lawsuit comes just weeks after Wayne was sued by his own lawyer. Lil Wayne also lobbed a $51 million suit against Birdman in 2015 after making similar claims that Baby profited off of him for years and was being an obstructionist during his attempts to release his still currently forthcoming album Tha Carter V. That suit is still pending.
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