T-Pain has sued Akon’s Konvict Entertainment company in a royalties dispute, having only settled a previous seven year legal battle over an allegedly unpaid advance just last year.
In the new lawsuit, T-Pain claims that Konvict has short-changed him out of nearly $500,000 by diverting half of the money it received from Sony Music for the exploitation of his recordings to a company run by Akon’s brother, before his 75% revenue share was calculated. Meaning he was paid $489,047, when he should have received double that amount.
T-Pain signed to Akon’s company back in 2005 and subsequently released five albums with the label up to 2017’s ‘Oblivion’. Konvict worked with Zomba on the releases, which ultimately became part of Sony.
He first sued Konvict in June 2018, claiming he had never received the advance he was contractually due for delivering ‘Oblivion’ to the label, while also accusing the company of failing to provide regular royalty reporting.
That case rumbled on for years and was ultimately settled through mediation, with Konvict reportedly paying T-Pain $114,000, but without accepting liability. That settlement also seemingly dealt with the royalties T-Pain was due from his first five albums through to the end of 2024.
Which brings us to the new lawsuit. T-Pain claims that under his deal with Konvict, which owns the rights in those first five albums, he should receive 75% of net receipts, so 75% of the money received by Akon’s company after Sony has taken its distribution cut. Sony paid approximately $1.3 million in royalties in March this year and T-Pain says he should get 75% of that cash.
However, half of that $1.3 million was actually paid to BuVision, another music company closely affiliated to Konvict that was founded by Akon’s brother Abou Thiam. T-Pain's legal filing says that he received his 75% share of the money directly paid to Konvict, but is also owed his share of the cash that was sent to BuVision.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when T-Pain’s people approached Konvict for the other half of the money he is due they sent his representatives on a “fruitless mission” to recover the rest of the royalties directly from BuVision, which then “ignored their inquiries”.
Which left T-Pain with “no other option” than to return to court and kick-start another legal battle with Konvict, which hopefully won’t take seven years to settle this time. The new lawsuit claims Konvict is in violation of both T-Pain’s 2005 record deal and last year’s settlement agreement.