Lil Wayne sues Universal Music Group for $40 million in unpaid profits
Lil Wayne has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group for allegedly withholding tens of millions of dollars in royalties for artists that Wayne discovered.
In the lawsuit, the rapper -- born Dwayne Carter Jr. -- accuses UMG of diverting his profits to repay itself "more than $100 million" it advanced to Cash Money Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.
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Lil Wayne's Young Money Records is a joint venture with Universal's Cash Money Records. In the 2003 agreement, according to the lawsuit, the parties agreed that Young Money profits and property would be divided between Cash Money and Lil Wayne, with Cash Money receiving 51 percent and Lil Wayne receiving 49 percent.
But according to the lawsuit, the rapper never saw profits for "discovering, developing, and nurturing" artists like Drake, Nicki Minaj and Tyga.
"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 alleges.
"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."
The rapper seeks at least $40 million in damages and profits.
Lil Wayne is also suing SoundExchange, a performance rights organization that collects and distributes royalties on the behalf of artists.
In a statement to Mashable, a UMG spokesperson said his claims were "entirely without merit."
"It should be no surprise that we learned of the lawyer’s complaint through the news media. 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.”
A representative for SoundExchange did not respond to Mashable's request for comment.
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Topics Music
