Daddy Yankee Sues Wife, Jay-Z Blasts Allegations, Ramones War Continues & More Music Law News
Written by djfrosty on December 17, 2024
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: Daddy Yankee accuses his soon-to-be ex-wife of stealing $80 million from his company; Jay-Z’s attorneys demand dismissal after his accuser admits “mistakes”; Johnny Ramone’s widow wins a legal ruling in the battle over the punk band’s legacy; and more, including a special recap of the best-ever Christmas music lawsuits.
THE BIG STORY: Daddy Yankee’s Divorce Goes Nuclear
Just weeks after Daddy Yankee and wife Mireddys González announced they were divorcing following 20 years of marriage, his lawyers took things to another level.
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In a motion filed in Puerto Rico court, the reggaetón hitmaker accused González and others of withdrawing a stunning $80 million from the bank account of his El Cartel Records “without authorization.” He’s seeking an injunction forcing her “immediate removal” from the company and the disclosure of information to unravel whatever harm was allegedly done.
In addition to the accusations of stolen money, the lawsuit makes other notable claims — like alleging that González shut him out of the negotiations that led to October’s $217 million sale of part of his catalog to Concord. He claims he doesn’t actually know exactly what was sold, and that the price “turned out to be unreasonable, disproportionate and far below the real value.”
For more details, go read the full story from Billboard‘s Griselda Flores. And stay tuned at Billboard for more developments as the case moves forward.
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: Holiday Music Lawsuits
With the holidays right around the corner, I broke down the many times that Christmas music has ended up in court — from Mariah Carey’s ongoing copyright battle over “All I Want For Christmas Is You” to Darlene Love’s fights with advertisers to repeated courtroom clashes over religious freedom. Before you kick off til the new year, go read the full story here.
Other top stories this week…
“I HAVE MADE SOME MISTAKES” – Jay-Z demanded the dismissal of a rape lawsuit linking him to the allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs, just hours after his accuser gave a bombshell interview to NBC News admitting inconsistencies and “mistakes” in her story. Jay-Z’s attorneys said they would seek to strike the complaint and seek penalties against Tony Buzbee, the attorney who filed it: “It is stunning that a lawyer would not only file such a serious complaint without proper vetting, but would make things worse by further peddling this false story in the press,” said Jay-Z attorney Alex Spiro. “We are asking the Court to dismiss this frivolous case today, and will take up the matter of additional discipline for Mr. Buzbee and all the lawyers that filed the complaint.”
ELSEWHERE IN DIDDY WORLD – On Friday, Combs said he would drop an appeal seeking to be released on bail, meaning he will remain in jail until his May trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges — a move that came after the bond request was rejected by federal judges three separate times. Then on Monday, the judge overseeing the criminal case rejected accusations from Diddy’s legal team that federal prosecutors leaked the infamous video of the Combs assaulting his ex-girlfriend Cassie, ruling there was no proof to such a charge.
HEY HO, LET’S SUE – Johnny Ramone’s widow, Linda Cummings-Ramone, won a legal victory over Joey Ramone‘s brother, Mickey Leigh, in their never-ending feud over control of the pioneering punk band’s legacy. An arbitrator ruled that Leigh’s manager, David Frey, must be terminated as a director on the band’s board for a wide variety of improper conduct, including improperly greenlighting a film project at Netflix with actor Pete Davidson attached to star as Joey. The ruling also detailed how Frey had tanked an opportunity for Linda to throw out the first pitch at a Ramones-themed New York Mets game: “There was no reason to lose this opportunity other than to continue the animosity and dysfunction,” the arbitrator wrote.
QUANDO RONDO SENTENCED – The rapper (Tyquian Terrel Bowman) was sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison after striking a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to a federal drug offense in Georgia. The deal saw the Savannah-based rapper admit to a single count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana in return for prosecutors dropping more serious charges involving methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine.
ASSAULT CASE SETTLED – Paula Abdul and former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe agreed to settle a lawsuit in which she alleged that he sexually assaulted her in the early 2000s when she was a judge on the show. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and Abdul simply said she was “grateful that this chapter has successfully come to a close and is now something I can now put behind me.”
TIKTOK AT SCOTUS – TikTok asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to block the federal law that would ban the popular platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company agreed to sell it. The appeal to the high court came just days after a federal appeals court affirmed the law’s constitutionality, rejecting TikTok’s claims that it violates the First Amendment’s protections for free speech. With the petition filed, the justices are on the clock: The statute banning TikTok — a crucial music industry promotion tool and a platform that now boasts more than 170 million users in the U.S. — goes into effect on Jan. 19.