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Megan Thee Stallion claims label is attempting to hold her “hostage”

By | Published on Monday 5 June 2023

Megan Thee Stallion

Megan Thee Stallion has accused her label 1501 Certified Entertainment of attempting to push back case deadlines in order to delay an upcoming trial in their ongoing legal dispute. She claims that this amounts to an attempt to hold her “hostage” as she fights to end her relationship with the company.

The rapper – real name Megan Pete – was responding to a new motion from the label to push back discovery deadlines, less than three months after a similar motion was granted. In March, 1501 was given an extra 60 days to prepare its case, with a trial date set for August.

Pete says in her new filing that her legal team had scheduled several witness depositions in March and April, but that these were all cancelled by the label. “It is now clear why 1501 did so”, she says, according to Law360. “To manufacture another excuse to delay trial”.

Pete sued 1501 in February 2022, seeking court confirmation that her 2021 release ‘Something For Thee Hotties’ counts as one of the three albums she is contractually obliged to deliver to the label.

If it does, then she fulfilled those obligations with the subsequent release last summer of ‘Traumazine’. But 1501 insists that ‘Something For Thee Hotties’ was merely a compilation of previously available freestyles and not a proper album.

Last week’s response to 1501’s motion to extend discovery deadlines further says: “Pete’s last two albums, ‘Something for Thee Hotties’ and ‘Traumazine,’ satisfied her final two album commitments to 1501. But Pete needs a trial against 1501 in order to not only maintain, but continue to grow, her fanbase and – most importantly – continue her art without interference. The bottom line is that any further delay could irreparably damage Pete’s career and silence her voice”.

Meanwhile, 1501 says that the potential delay to the trial is actually all of Pete’s doing, after she updated her lawsuit last month to include the label’s founder Carl Crawford as a defendant. It says that the current deadline of 5 Jul does not give it enough time to prepare a defence based on this change.

“Requiring Mr Crawford to personally litigate an entire lawsuit in less than three months, with three weeks for discovery, would be highly prejudicial”, it said when filing its motion last month. “Ms Pete cannot unilaterally expand the scope of this litigation less than 60 days before the close of discovery and then prevent a new party, let alone 1501, from conducting necessary discovery on her additional claims”.

We await to see what the court decides.



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