Darius “Deezle” Harrison, known for producing several tracks on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over unpaid royalties. Harrison, credited on six tracks from the album including the chart-topping single “Lollipop,” asserts that he is owed $3 million in royalties that have gone unpaid for over ten years.
According to the lawsuit, Harrison’s contract with Cash Money Records entitled him to a 4% royalty rate for each song he contributed to on Tha Carter III. He further claims a separate agreement with Cash Money entitled him to a 3% royalty rate for his work on Birdman’s 2005 album Fast Money.
Harrison previously took legal action in 2011 against Lil Wayne, Cash Money, and Young Money concerning the same royalty payments. That case was settled shortly after it was filed. He states that royalty payments from UMG began in 2012, coinciding with the settlement, but stopped soon after.
UMG and Lil Wayne have not publicly commented on the current lawsuit.
In a separate legal matter, UMG is also being sued by their artist Drake, who was formerly associated with Cash Money and Young Money. Drake has accused UMG of defamation related to Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us.”
UMG has denied these claims and responded critically to Drake’s lawsuit, stating: “As Drake concedes, Lamar’s Super Bowl performance did not include the lyric that Drake or his associates are ‘certified pedophiles’ (i.e., the alleged ‘Defamatory Material’ that is at the heart of this case).”
UMG continued: “The focus of Drake’s new claims—that ‘the largest audience for a Super Bowl halftime show ever’ did not hear Lamar call Drake or his crew pedophiles—betrays this case for what it is: Drake’s attack on the commercial and creative success of the rap artist who defeated him, rather than the content of Lamar’s lyrics.”
They also stated: “Nowhere in the hundred-plus page ‘legal’ blather written by Drake’s lawyers do they bother to acknowledge that Drake himself has written and performed massively successful songs containing equally provocative taunts against other artists. Nor do they mention that it was Drake who started this particular exchange.”
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