Lil Wayne has added another major record label to his growing legal battle to recover millions of dollars owed to him.
The Young Money chief is suing Universal Music Group to recover $40 million of profits from sales from the artists on his roster including Tyga, Drake and Nicki Minaj.
In a federal lawsuit filed by the rapper’s attorneys, Weezy argued that UMG has been slowly paying itself back after advancing Cash Money $100 million, but the problem is half of that money is his because his artists earned most of that funds.
“With Universal’s knowledge of Lil Wayne’s rights to partial ownership and profits from those artists, Universal and Cash Money entered into a series of agreements which, among other things, diverted Lil Wayne’s substantial profits to repay debts of Cash Money,” the Hollywood Reporter states. “As a result, 100% of the profits that should have been paid to Lil Wayne as a result of his ownership of Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Tyga records have been seized by Universal to repay debts that were neither incurred by nor were the obligations of Lil Wayne.”
You can recalled that Lil Wayne is suing Cash Money Records for $51 million. According to Weezy, his deal with Birdman’s label affects the lawsuit because he signed a deal back in 2003 to divide profits and property 51% – 49% for his Young Money artists. The deal came to an end in June 2015, but Weezy is saying that he never get all of his money.
UMG is calling Lil Wayne’s lawsuit baseless and vows to fight it in court.
“These claims are entirely without merit,” UMG spokesperson said. “It should be no surprise that we learned of the lawyer’s complaint through the news media. We don’t intend to dignify this with further public comment except to say that we will vigorously contest it and that the merits of our case will carry the day.”
Lil Wayne is also suing SoundExchange, which is a third party company that collect royalties on behalf of artists.
