Megan Thee Stallion settles lawsuit against her label as both parties agree to part ways
Megan Thee Stallion and her former label reached a settlement this week in the rapper’s year-long lawsuit with both sides agreeing to part ways.
Attorneys for 1501 Certified Entertainment confirmed the deal to The Times on Friday but declined to comment further. They referred to a statement posted on the label’s Instagram page that read, “Megan Thee Stallion and 1501 Certified are pleased to announce that they have mutually reached a confidential settlement to resolve their legal differences.
“As part of the arrangement, both parties have agreed to amicably part ways,†the statement continued. “Both Megan and 1501 are pleased to put this matter behind them and move forward with the next chapter of their respective businesses.â€
Megan Thee Stallion says she’s recording new music without help from her label. The rapper is attempting to break her deal with 1501 Certified Entertainment.
The label’s founder, former MLB star and Dodgers player Carl Crawford, added in the statement, “All of us at 1501 wish Megan the very best in her life and career.â€
Representatives for Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for comments on Friday afternoon.
In a series of lawsuits against 1501, filed throughout 2022 in Harris County, Texas, Pete has tried to get out of the label deal she signed in 2018 with Crawford. The lawsuits called the contract “one-sided†and “unconscionable.†Pete alleged in her complaints that the label owed her more than $1 million in unpaid royalties, had failed to promote her music or allow her to record new music with other artists, and signed her to a deal that was below industry standards.
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The label, Pete further alleged, purposely didn’t categorize her 2021 release “Something for Thee Hotties†as an album, in an effort to “tie†her down and force her “to release more albums under the contract to the financial benefit of 1501.â€
Attorneys for 1501 and Crawford countersued, saying Pete is the one who owes it money. The label said Pete needed to pay it more than $10 million in earnings and royalties from touring, merchandise sales and her sponsorships, endorsements and commercial work with other brands.
The label also said in court documents that Pete had “consistently refused to comply with the [contract] provisions she does not like.†And because the label said “Something for Thee Hotties†was not a full-length album, they alleged that Pete still owed them another full-length release.
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Last week, Megan Thee Stallion teased an upcoming project in a series of Instagram posts, revealing images of her posing with vampire-esque fangs, accompanied by images of snakes and the title “Act One.†In a caption that ran over two of the posts, she wrote, “Let’s begin.â€
She followed up the posts by appearing on an Instagram live broadcast with her music producer, LilJuMadeDaBeat, where she said she planned to release new music independently, without a label.
“I have no label right now,†she said in the broadcast. “The next s— y’all ‘bout to see ‘bout to be straight from Megan Thee Stallion’s brain, Megan Thee Stallion’s wallets.â€
On Friday, she posted another series of photos, featuring more snakes, and asked her followers to “tune in Monday.â€
The “Thot S—†performer hasn’t released new music since the end of the Tory Lanez criminal case. In December, a jury convicted Lanez of shooting her in the feet during an alcohol-fueled argument after a July 2020 Hollywood Hills party. Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, is serving a 10-year sentence in the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, north of Lancaster, according to state prison records.
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