Artist News Business News Labels & Publishers Legal

New lawsuit renews hostilities between Cash Money and Lil Wayne

By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 21 August 2018

Gossip site The Blast reckons that the recent truce between Lil Wayne and his record company, Birdman’s Universal Music-allied label Cash Money, might come to an end because of a new lawsuit that has just been filed.

Wayne was embroiled in a long-running and multi-layered legal battle with Birdman, Cash Money and Universal Music, which, among other things, delayed the release of the rapper’s long-awaited ‘Tha Carter V’ album. But then earlier this year that dispute was settled.

In June, Wayne’s legal rep Ron Sweeney told Billboard: “Per our settlement agreement, the matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. In terms of the particulars, we’re prohibited legally from saying anything further. I can say that my client is happy. He is his own man, a man that owns his assets, his music and himself. At some point, Wayne will let his fans know what’s going to happen next”.

Now Cash Money has filed new litigation in relation to a separate dispute with a company called Aspire Music Group. The new lawsuit is in response to action taken by Aspire last year in a row over Drake royalties. Aspire Music Group signed Drake to both management and recording agreements in 2008 and then did a deal for him with Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment, which is an imprint of Cash Money Records.

In its lawsuit, Aspire – which was co-founded by Wayne’s manager Cortez Bryant – claimed that it was owed millions in royalty payments relating to its deal with Young Money and Cash Money. It also accused the latter of failing to properly report monies generated by Drake’s records and of incorrectly applying deductions when it did report.

Last week Cash Money countersued Aspire. And, according to The Blast, in the new lawsuit Birdman accuses Wayne and Bryant of conspiring with the aforementioned lawyer Ron Sweeney to gain a larger share of Drake’s profits.

The Cash Money lawsuit states: “Aspire was simply a shell company. There was no business purpose to forming Aspire, other than to siphon profits out of the joint venture and to divert those profits to Sweeney, Bryant and [Wayne]/Young Money. Aspire never conducted any business other than getting Drake signed to a record label. Aspire has never signed, nor sought to sign, a single additional artist”.

Cash Money wants Aspire’s lawsuit dismissed and unspecified damages for fraud, aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty, and interference with contractual relations.