As expected, the victim in the much previously reported Remy Ma shooting is suing the US rapper in a multi-million dollar civil action.
Ma is currently serving an eight year sentence after being found guilty of assault, illegal weapon possession and attempted coercion back in March in relation to an incident in July last year when the rapper shot an associate after an argument over money. Ma claimed the gun went off by accident during a struggle, but the court believed victim Makeda Smith-Barnes, who said the rapper deliberately shot her before speeding away from the scene.
The civil lawsuit is seeking over $160 million in compensatory and punitive damages, plus legal costs, which seems a tad optimistic, but whatever. Barnes claims that as a direct result of Ma's action she continues to suffer severe pain and mental anguish, and that she is still unable to hold down a normal job.
Although Ma herself is the primary defendant, there are various other defendants listed on the lawsuit, including the Universal Music Group and various Universal subsidiaries, with the legal papers pursuing that argument previously pursued in other legal cases involving law-breaking major-label-signed hip hop types, that the major recognised and fostered Ma's reputation for misbehaving in order to hone her image as a rapper, and that they profited from that image.
The record companies, the legal papers say, knew of and profited from Ma's "history of unlawful, violent and anti-social behavior", and had a duty to protect the public from her "unlawful and illegal behavior" rather than using it to market music. It's quite a leap in legal logic to make a record company liable if one of their artists shoots someone, but given suing multi-national conglomerates is generally more profitable, you can see why Barnes and her lawyers will have a good go.
The defendants now have until 14 Jul to respond to the lawsuit.