Young Money leader Lil Wayne’s label is reportedly in the hot seat as two producers have stepped forward to file federal lawsuits over contributions to multiple projects dating back to 2008’s Tha Carter III.
According to reports, the first lawsuit states Young Money has stopped paying out royalties.
Two different producers — Andrews “Drew” Correa and Marcos “Infamous” Rodriguez — filed federal lawsuits this week against Wayne’s label, Young Money Entertainment. In lawsuit #1 … Correa says he inked a deal with YME in 2008 to produce music for a YME artist. He claims that music ended up on mega albums like “Carter III,” “Re-Birth,” “I’m Not a Human Being” and “Priceless.” Correa says he was paid some royalties by YME, but the payments stopped coming out of the blue. (TMZ)
The second lawsuit makes similar accusations, claiming Young Money has ceased paying out royalties.
In lawsuit #2 … Rodriguez claims he signed on in 2007 to produce music for YME and claims his compositions were used on the albums “Carter III,” “Re-Birth,” “We Are Young Money,” “Carter IV” and “Priceless.” He claims YME stopped making royalty payments and refuses to cough up any more cash. Both producers hired Singh, Singh and Trauben to sue the pants off YME for the missing pay days. (TMZ)
Prior to settling the case, Wayne got hit with a $1.5 million lawsuit over another production-royalty problem.
The $20 million lawsuit claims that Deezle, who says he produced “Whip It,” “Prostitute 2,” “Action,” “Mrs. Officer” and “Let the Beat Build” as well as “Lollipop,” is entitled to his cut of royalties on the reported $70 million the album has grossed on sales of 6 million copies. “Lollipop” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and won a Grammy for Best Rap Song in 2009. Harrison previously sued Wayne for $2.5 million over what he claimed were unpaid royalties from the sales of “Mrs. Officer.” The liner notes to Carter list Harrison as a co-producer along with Jim Jonsin on “Lollipop” and as the recording engineer on most of the other songs on the disc. A spokesperson for Wayne and Young Money/ Cash Money could not be reached for comment at press time on the lawsuit. (MTV)
Back in 2010, Carter III producer, Jim Jonson, who also worked on the “Lollipop” anthem, said it was time for Weezy to pay up.
“We’re still trying to get paid. Clearly, I don’t understand what the issue is. They’ve collected checks, they’re buying Bugattis, but the people that created the songs are not getting paid. And so we’re going through some things now in hopes that it gets fixed…[“Lollipop”] was like the most downloaded song in history, so pay the people who made it. It’s not your record, it’s our record.” (VIBE)
