Artist News Business News Labels & Publishers Legal

Megan Thee Stallion gets court order to allow release of BTS collaboration

By | Published on Wednesday 25 August 2021

Megan Thee Stallion

A remix of BTS track ‘Butter’ complete with a guest stint from Megan Thee Stallion will appear on streaming services on Friday, it appears, after a court quickly ruled that the rapper’s label cannot block the release.

Yesterday, Megan Thee Stallion – real name Megan Pete – filed legal papers with the Harris County Court in Houston asking the judge there to confirm that a previous restraining order she secured against 1501 Certified Entertainment means it cannot stop the release of her BTS collaboration.

This is part of a long-running legal battle between Pete and 1501, an independent label owned by former baseball player Carl Crawford, which signed the rapper to a wide-ranging deal covering recordings, publishing, merchandise and live activity back in 2018.

Describing Pete’s relationship with her label, this week’s legal filing stated: “From the day Crawford and 1501 fraudulently induced Pete to sign an exclusive contract with them, Crawford and 1501 have done nothing to help Pete grow her career in the music industry and have only put up roadblocks in an attempt to stifle her artistic expression as a music artist and irreparably harm her career”.

Pete and 1501 have been involved in legal wrangling for more than a year, with the rapper seeking to either end her relationship with the label, or significantly renegotiate her deal. Along the way Pete secured a temporary restraining order in March 2020 when 1501 sought to block the release of her ‘Suga’ EP. It’s that restraining order which, Pete wanted the court to confirm yesterday, means the label can’t stop the release this week of the new version of ‘Butter’.

Her legal filing went on: “On March 2, 2020, the ancillary judge in Harris County granted Pete’s [temporary restraining order] and enjoined defendants 1501 and Crawford from, among other things, preventing distributor 300 Entertainment from releasing, distributing, or selling Pete’s new records or trying to prevent or limit others from working with Pete, in any manner. The [order] was subsequently extended and remains enforceable”.

As for the BTS collaboration, the legal filing said that if Pete was not allowed to release the record, “her music career will suffer irreparable damage, including a devastating impact to her relationships with her fans and with other recording artists in the music industry. Such irreparable injury to her personal goodwill and the silencing of her artistic expression in music cannot be compensated in the way of monetary damages. As such, Pete seeks emergency relief from this court”.

In a speedy response, the judge seemingly granted Pete’s request, confirming that 1501 cannot block the release of ‘Butter’. According to Billboard, a new hearing regarding the ongoing restraining order is now set for 10 Sep.



READ MORE ABOUT: |