Quality Control has responded to rapper Offset’s lawsuit asking the court to throw out his claim as he allegedly breached their agreement when he aired out the label on social media over alleged shady behavior.
Offset, who is married to Cardi B, is suing Quality Control, who he says attempted to claim rights to music he released as a solo artist. The rapper filed the lawsuit last summer, claiming that Quality Control breached their agreement made in January 2021, where he “paid handsomely” to get out of his exclusive contract with QC. The new agreement allows him to pursue a solo artist career.
The lawsuit came after the release of his track “54321,” where QC filed for royalties for the Baby Keem-produced track.
In a response filed this week, QC’s directors, Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas, asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit claiming that Offset did not have legal standing since the songs are works for hire and not owned by him due to their agreement, Radar Online reported.
“Having continued to accept the benefits of working directly with Capitol (after Defendant assigned to Offset its rights under the Offset/Capitol Agreement) in connection with the production of recordings as works for hire, and because, under the Label Deal Agreement, as amended, 100 per cent of the copyright rights in recordings made by Offset as works for hire for Capitol are automatically assigned by Capitol to Quality Control, Plaintiffs are estopped from taking the position in this action that they are the owner of such recordings, rather than Capitol or its assignee, Quality Control.”
In his lawsuit, Offset, who is signed as a member of Migos to Quality Control and the husband of rapper Cardi B, said that the label received millions from him to buy out the contract he had with the label. That came after working with QC for more than a decade, where they took half of everything he earned as a Migos rapper.
“Quality Control also collected a sizable proportion of all the money that Offset made through his ingenuity and hard work,” the suit said.
It added, “When he came to understand the full ramification of the deal that he entered into, Offset set out to regain control of his solo career (notwithstanding Quality Control’s overreaching deal with Migos as a group, which remains in place.”
On Twitter, Offset also lambasted QC for attempting to claim a share of his solo song. In a tweet last year August, Offset says he paid millions to get out of his contract with the label. Cardi B also shared the same sentiments in an Instagram Livestream video. He also claimed the label blackballed him in the industry.
However, QC is maintaining that it has rights to the recordings.
“Because Offset is not the owner of recordings he has made or continues to make with Motown on or after January 15, 2021, including the recordings “54321” and “Code”, [Offset] lack standing to bring this action,” the response from QC said.
Meanwhile, QC also took issue with Offset blasting them online, specifically on social media. This, it says, is a violation of a “confidentiality provision” as they accused Offset of sharing “the terms of the Settlement Agreement in the Complaint and in social media posts, and by sharing the Settlement Agreement with various Universal Music Group executive.”
Offset’s legal team has not responded to the defense by QC.
