
you guys are making a grave error by really pointing the finger at BIRDMAN whom is the "fall guy" in this situation.....when the real culprit is Lucian Grainge, Doug Morris and UNIVERSAL
shoutout to @bigboss for posting that article which details Wayne's lawsuit against UNIVERSAL RECORDS.....
they finessed the fukk out of Wayne....on numerous occasions..
Wayne actually wanted to leave the Universal Music Group all together , but it was Doug who Wayne admitted influenced Jay-Z to try to bring him over to Def Jam in an effort to keep Wayne and his catalog under the Universal Umbrella just to stall him till he (doug) was able to convince Vivendi ..(the parent company of Universal Records) to greenlight the 100 million plus deal that eventually not only financed the YMCMB situation but at the same time resigned Cash Money to the universal brand...
the deal took years to negotiate and finally was closed succesfully under Lucian Grainge who did everything in his "power" make sure UNIVERSAL was able to get back that 100 million it had advanced to Birdman and Cash Money.....at Lil Wayne's expense unfortunatly...
Lucian Grainge
it's detailed by Wayne's lawyers in this press release:
Universal Music Group is paying itself instead of shelling out royalties it owes Lil Wayne, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the rapper-producer's attorneys Monday in California.
Dwayne Carter Jr., known as Lil Wayne, is suing UMG and SoundExchange, claiming he's been shorted millions from his work discovering and nurturing artists like Drake, Nicki Minaj and Tyga.
Carter claims Universal has diverted tens of millions of dollars of his profits to repay itself for the $100 million it advanced to Cash Money Records, Inc.
"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," states the complaint. "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."
Carter's Young Money Label is a joint venture with Universal's Cash Money Records designed to manufacture, distribute, promote and exploit performances of new recording artists discovered by Carter and signed to the label, according to the complaint.
He claims their 2003 agreement states the label's profits "would be divided 51% - 49% between Cash Money and Carter, and ownership of all the Young Money Label property, (e.g., master recordings, copyrights, intellectual property, good will) similarly would be owned 51% - 49% between Cash Money and Carter, respectively."
After multiple extensions, the term expired June 4, 2015, which puts Drake's upcoming album in the crosshairs.
“Universal should be grateful and respectful to Lil Wayne for the millions of dollars in distribution fees and profits they have earned on the artists he brought to the company, instead of seizing all of his profits on those artists in a desperate attempt to recoup the tens of millions of dollars they are owed by Cash Money Records,” said Carter's attorney Howard E. King of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano in a Monday statement.
SoundExchange, the nonprofit that collects and distributes digital performance royalties on behalf of copyright owners, is also named as a defendant in the suit.
Carter claims "Universal has claimed a right to 100% of the label performance royalties attributed to the YME Records" and "SoundExchange refuses to pay any of the money due to Young Money LLC and Carter individually based on Universal’s conflicting demand."
Carter wants the court to clear it up and is seeking at least $40 million in damages and disgorged profits and a "judgment declaring the parties’ respective rights with regard to Plaintiffs’ share of label performance royalties."
Universal Music Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
also keep in mind SOUNDEXCHANGE which is an independent P.R.O (publishing rights organization) much like BMI and ASCAP but focuses on Digitial i.e (streaming and download) royalties was in on the finesse game as well....
UNIVERSAL knew that the concept of a physical LP (album) was a dying format so they prepared themselves by securing 100% rights to the digital revenue as well as passing on the "option" of ever releasing the Carter 5 or any material submitted by wayne which would fulfill Wayne's obligation to the label and force them to have to fully compensate Wayne for his contributions.
this 100 million dollar deal that Universal had giving birdman was intended to secure all digital royalty rights on future cash money/YMCMB releases to make up for the "fukk up" Universal did in the beginnin when they let Birdman get rights to his masters and that huge historical 80 20 mechanical and publishing royalty split for all those years..... as Wendy Day said..."there will never be another deal like that"...
Vivendi/Universal was pissed at Doug for that....and wanted him to make things right ...and this deal that was orchestrated by him and his protege Lucian Grainge is the result of that..
Its really a sad sad prime example of willie lynchism at a corporate level....wayne and birdman our beefing cause of an elaborate "shell game" being put together by the suit and ties over at universal...