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Megan Thee Stallion secures restraining order against her label ahead of this weekend’s AMAs
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 15 November 2022
The legal back and forth between Megan Thee Stallion and her label 1501 Certified Entertainment continues, with the rapper – real name Megan Pete – securing a restraining order to stop the label from interfering in her efforts to capitalise on this weekend’s American Music Awards.
There has been plenty of legal wrangling between Pete and 1501 in recent years. She originally claimed that her deal with the label did not follow music industry conventions and was unfairly skewed in 1501’s favour. After she went legal on the matter, 1501 agreed to amend elements of that deal, resulting in Pete’s lawsuit being dismissed.
But then a new dispute began over the three albums Pete is obliged to deliver to 1501 and, in particular, whether last year’s ‘Something For Thee Hotties’ counts as one of them. She reckons that it does, but 1501 argues that that record, which was basically a compilation of freestyles and archive tracks, does not fulfil the definition of album under the terms of her record contract.
Following the release of Pete’s recent album ‘Traumazine’ in August, the rapper asked the court to confirm that she had now fulfilled the terms of her record contract, even though that would require counting ‘Something For Thee Hotties’ as album number two of three. She also claimed that she was owed at least a million dollars in royalties by the label and posited that 1501 might have been behind a pre-release leak of ‘Traumazine’.
The following month 1501 responded via its own legal filing again insisting that ‘Something For Thee Hotties’ does not qualify as one of the albums she is obliged to deliver to the label. It also rejected Pete’s royalties claim, arguing that she actually owes 1501 millions from other elements of its wide-ranging deal with the rapper. Meanwhile, it added, Pete had failed to provide any evidence regarding the album leak allegation.
It’s not entirely clear what the new AMA-related spat between Pete and 1501 is all about. But, according to Billboard, she claimed that the label had “unlawfully” taken steps “to block or interfere with Pete exploiting, licensing or publishing her music” ahead of this weekend’s AMA bash, where the rapper is nominated for Favourite Female Hip Hop Artist.
With voting for the awards closing last night and the AMA show itself taking place on Sunday, the court seemingly issued a speedy ex parte order against 1501, which basically is an injunction issued even before the targeted party has had a chance to respond, because it is deemed by the court that urgent action is required to stop any alleged harm.
Or, in the words of the court, “because there [is] not enough time to give notice to defendants, hold a hearing, and issue a restraining order before the irreparable injury, loss, or damage would occur”. The ex parte order says that 1501 and its distribution partner 300 are restricted from “preventing or blocking the use and exploitation” of Pete’s music in promotional content connected to the AMAs.
A hearing to properly consider Pete’s allegations will then take place after the awards on 22 Nov.
