State Champ Radio Black Sheep
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A lawsuit brought by Black Sheep against Universal Music Group for unpaid royalties has been dismissed by a judge outright.
According to reports, a judge in New York has tossed out the lawsuit by Black Sheep against their former label, Universal Music Group for “withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties from artists”. UMG asked the court to dismiss the complaint outright, which was the path taken by Judge Jennifer L. Rochon. The decision also prevents the group from having a chance to amend(add additional information to the lawsuit) saying “that leave to amend is not warranted because it would be futile.”
The lawsuit was brought by Dres and Mr. Lawange of Black Sheep two years ago, claiming that based on UMG’s acceptance of reduced royalty rates for their 1991 debut album A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing to be streamed on Spotify in exchange for low-priced shares in the platform that Universal held onto an estimated $750 million in royalties. This was based on the streaming figures for several tracks from that RIAA-certified gold album, including “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)” which to date has 41.44 million plays on streaming platforms.
The news came a day before the premiere of The Choice Is Yours, a documentary on Dres of Black Sheep and his quest to release an album featuring his lyrics backed by production from the late J Dilla with the blessing of Ma Dukes. There has been no word yet from Dres about the verdict handed down.
In documents from the ruling, Judge Rochon stated that the lawsuit did not fall within the contractually established two-year statute of limitations. “Even accepting Plaintiffs’ alternative argument that UMG breached the contract again after Spotify’s IPO in 2018,” Judge Rochon wrote in the decision, “Plaintiffs’ failure to bring those claims within two years of UMG’s alleged breach still renders them untimely.” She applied that reasoning behind dismissing each claim in the suit except for “lowered royalty payments issued after January 4, 2021,” which was the date that the lawsuit was submitted. In that instance, Judge Rochon wrote that the contract’s “plain language” didn’t support the argument brought by Black Sheep in the lawsuit.
Universal Music Group (UMG) has won the dismissal of a closely-watched class action that challenged the fairness of its 2008 purchase of shares in Spotify — a case that accused the company of taking lower-than-market royalty rates in return for a chunk of equity that’s now worth hundreds of millions.
The lawsuit, filed last year by the members of the ’90s hip-hop duo Black Sheep, claimed that UMG had secured its now-lucrative stake in the then-nascent streamer by signing an “undisclosed, sweetheart deal” that left artists underpaid to the tune of $750 million. UMG has called the claims “patently false.”
In a decision Monday (Nov. 20), U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon ruled that even if UMG had taken below-market royalty rates from Spotify in return for equity, doing so would not have breached its contracts with artists — which give the music giant “unfettered discretion” to license its recordings as it sees fit.
“Plaintiffs argue that UMG exceeded the bounds of its discretion under the contract by making an undisclosed licensing deal in exchange for Spotify stock, for which UMG is withholding artists’ rightful share … of the proceeds UMG reaped,” the judge wrote. “But they do not square that conclusion with UMG’s unlimited right to license their work.”
Black Sheep members Andres “Dres” Titus and William “Mista Lawnge” McLean sued in January, claiming Universal acted in “bad faith” when it secretly acquired a 5% stake in the “fledgling streaming service” in 2008 for just a few thousand dollars. The real payment to Spotify, the lawsuit claimed, had been UMG’s willingness to accept “substantially lower royalty payments” — an arrangement that benefited UMG and Spotify but “shortchanged artists” and “deprived” them of fair royalties.
“Universal concealed from artists that it acquired Spotify stock and that royalty payments were depressed as a result,” lawyers for the duo wrote in their complaint. “Over time, the value of the Spotify stock that Universal improperly withheld from artists has ballooned to hundreds of millions of dollars.”
When the case was filed, Universal called the claims “patently false and absurd.” In later court filings, the company flatly denied the core allegation: “UMG disputes that the equity stock acquired in 2008 was part of the consideration that Spotify provided for a license to UMG’s music catalog.”
Reps for both UMG and Black Sheep did not return requests for comment on Tuesday.
The major music companies all acquired equity in Spotify during the streamer’s early days. According to a 2018 report by Music Business Worldwide, the then-Big Four music companies (Universal, Warner, Sony and EMI) plus Merlin paid just €8,804 total for a combined 18% of the streamer divvied up between them. The role that royalty rates played in that deal, and whether artists would eventually see some of the profit, was hotly debated for years.
After Spotify went public in 2018, it started to become clear just how valuable those stakes had become. Sony Music sold 50% of its shares for $768 million in April 2018, followed by Warner selling its entire stake for $504 million in August 2018. Both later made good on previous pledges to disburse some of the proceeds to artists, although reportedly with differing stipulations.
Universal has yet to sell its shares in Spotify, but it made a similar pledge in March 2018. Later that year, when Taylor Swift signed with the company, she reportedly required that UMG further promise to distribute the money to artists regardless of unrecouped balances — meaning artists will be paid regardless of whether they still owe the label money.
But in their lawsuit, Black Sheep argued that such promises were not good enough. They said Universal had already wronged many of its artists in one of two ways — simply by taking lower rates and thus reducing their royalty payments, or by failing to disburse the profits of their equity stakes as royalties.
In Monday’s ruling dismissing the case, Judge Rochon said she did not even need to decide whether or not those allegations were true. Instead, she simply ruled that even if they were true, Universal would still not have violated its record deal with Black Sheep.
“The contract’s plain language does not support plaintiffs’ theories,” the judge wrote about the allegedly reduced rates, noting that the deal gave UMG the “sole, exclusive and unlimited right” to license the recordings. “Given this wide discretion, there is no basis upon which to find that UMG breached the contract by accepting a lower royalty from Spotify.”
Judge Rochon also rejected the argument that UMG should have accounted for the equity profits when paying artists, saying the contract only requires payment for revenue that is “solely attributable” to their specific songs.
“Plaintiffs cannot directly trace UMG’s alleged acquisition of Spotify stock to the use or exploitation of their work alone,” the judge wrote. “UMG did not breach the contract by failing to account for its value when paying Plaintiffs their royalties.”
Even beyond the merits of the lawsuit, the judge also said she would have dismissed most of it for a far simpler reason: That it had been filed far past the statute of limitations. If the case had moved forward, Rochon said it only would have applied to royalty payments made after January 2021, not those reaching back all the way to 2008.
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Dres of Black Sheep talks at length with HipHopWired in an exclusive interview before the premiere of The Choice Is Yours, a Paramount+ documentary focusing on his career and impending new project with beats by J Dilla.
Source: Paramount+ / Paramount+
As Hip-Hop is celebrating its 50th anniversary, the stage is set for many in the culture to tell their stories to its legion of fans in various forms. Dres, born Andre Vargas-Titus, one half of the iconic rap duo Black Sheep, is the subject of a new documentary film from Paramount+ named after the hit that entrenched them in popular culture, The Choice Is Yours. The film takes a look at Dres reflecting on those years of success and covers his journey balancing being an esteemed artist and father as he’s been blessed to create a project using beats from the legendary J Dilla. HipHopWired had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Dres about the film and his experiences. The following exchange is the result of that opportunity.
HipHopWired: What led you to share your journey in The Choice Is Yours? How did that process get initiated?
Dres: I wound up meeting the film company Versus when they were doing Chi Ali’s documentary. I knew it was a really dope, creative group of cats where I’ve seen them work. When I got the opportunity to kind of create this project…I honestly, in my heart, knew it needed documentation but didn’t know if they’d even mess with it. And just through happenstance [I] wound up having a conversation with one of the cats from the company to which we’re both kind of expressing the same thing. I’m kind of expressing, like that there’s a cool opportunity that I really would love to document and they’re like, “Yo, you need to document this.” (Laughs) So it kind of happened organically like, “Okay, well, sh*t” you know? And it was really cool because they just jumped on, like literally within that week we were moving. And we haven’t looked back.
And it’s been quite the walk, literally with COVID in between. They’ve worked quite a bit with me. It’s been this amazing thing that kind of got to take place really organically, and they really understood kind of how I wanted to present it to the degree that I didn’t want it to come across as something that was manipulative or me trying to take advantage of something. So me finding out who J Dilla really was, was really important to me, because I didn’t have that relationship with him. It was also important to me that his mother knew that I didn’t have that relationship with your son, even to the degree that I needed to know why you let me do this because I’m not, I’m not tip I’m not, you know, De La or someone that you know, I’m not Erykah Badu. I’m just Dres.
All of that stuff was really important to me to be conveyed. I’m already grateful for the opportunity to be Dres. But to get the opportunity to do this, at this point is, you know, [is] everything that I’ve been looking for. I’ve been trying to find a way to get on current platforms and introduce new music, things that I’ve been doing for years. This is an opportunity for me to show you that that even exists. Because from here, you know, you turn around and you’re like, “Oh, sh*t, there’s projects? All these collaborations?” All of that exists from this platform, but it’s not like it hasn’t been there. In this instant gratification culture that we’ve acquired, sometimes, we forget yesterday. It’s all good though, sometimes we get reminded.
True, true. In the film, you just exude the joy that you have for your art and music. I was blessed to see it at your Rock The Bells set in Queens this summer. How meaningful is it for you to hand that energy off as we see in the film with you building with the students, J Dilla’s program and building with Ma Dukes and Toney Smith, to have that displayed with you handing that energy off to the next generation that loves you and your music?
I think that it’s one of the most important things—and it’s dope that you even pointed that out—because as an artist, I think it’s important that we lead with love. I think as individuals, there are times when a situation has to be whatever it has to be. But I think leading with love kind of allows it to be reciprocated. And that’s important now, here. It’s so important because when we lead with anything else, I think that opens the door for whatever, that anything else is to be reciprocated. And I want to receive nothing but some love. So I always try to make it a point to come from a place of, you know, like, “How would I want to receive this? How would I, what would I want to get from it?” I try to be that. I think it’s afforded me, this career, it’s afforded me a walk that a lot of people can’t pay for.
Like, literally. I go to any place in New York, damn near any place in the world and kids are like, “What’s up Dres?” That’s something nice to say to become positive because that’s how I lead. I’m not looking for ops, there’s no issue. You know, if anything, I’m coming here to bring something, and that’s where my head is at with it. And I think that resonates with people. And I think as artists, that’s part of our job, to be personable. To be something that is of the people. I’m of the people. But I think I learned that a long time ago, to be a voice of the people. Those are the artists that I respect, in coming up, the artists I truly, really, really hold close were artists of the people. That’s who I try to emulate. Or that’s what I try to be.
Source: MTV Entertainment Studios / Courtesy of Paramount+
There’s one gem that you dropped in The Choice Is Yours that resonated with me when you talked about just the creative process. You said, “That’s the sh*t that ages you when you stop dreaming.” And I think it’s poignant. Given how Hip-Hop turned 50 years young, you’re one of the esteemed luminaries who’s keeping its music thriving. Like, that’s the main thing that you want to share with everybody, right? Leading with love?
No doubt, like, part of leading with love is being competitive. I love being competitive. I equate it to playing ball. Like, “These young boys can’t hold me,” you know? (Laughs) Like, for real, for real, these young boys, they cannot hold me. And some of these other cats are too old to hold me. And I say that knowing that we are the same age, right? And that’s just a mental thing. That’s my mentality. I’ve always been of the mentality, even as a street cat, like, ain’t nobody my size could beat me. You got to be much bigger than me to beat me, much bigger than me to beat me. That’s my mentality. I can’t see somebody my size beat me, it’s impossible. That’s the same energy I bring to the microphone. Like, I got something for y’all. I’m nice. There’s three points. I’m Steph [Curry]. That’s good. I’m on defense now. Because that’s what I work with mentally. And mentally, I think it’s important that we stay in tune with that, who we are, and who we grew up as. Because you better believe physically that’s gonna change. (Laughs)
So you keep that. You keep that mentality, that doesn’t have to change. You can stay strong, you can will yourself to be who you’re supposed to be. This is what I’m supposed to be, and that’s what I’m pushing forward. And I’m learning to shed who I’m not supposed to be. The things I’m not supposed to accept; I’m learning not to accept them. The things I’m supposed to gravitate to; I’m learning to gravitate to them. The things I’m supposed to stop, it’s hard some days, but you know, I’m slowly doing less of that. And the things I’m supposed to do, I’m slowly doing more of. But I’m keeping the mentality of, like, “Yeah, now you can’t check me.” Like, that’s damn near impossible to say. And that I’m from someplace that we consider golden, I think it’s important to be able to illustrate it. I can’t tell you about it because you don’t understand it when I tell you about it. I have to be able to show you, and that’s the work for me.
That leads me to my last question….. When are we gonna get to hear the Dilla and Dres project in full? Can you shed any light on that?
Honestly it’s looking like, right now it’s going to be a little bit of piecemeal. But at the same time, I think the film is going to put me in a position where I have a little bit more power to put this together as the project that I want. And to do it how I want to do it. Because…the world we live in is very different, you know what I’m saying? Especially that my heyday is so far from right now. I hope we do, I hope the film does phenomenally and does numbers because it’s almost like I have to prove that I’m worthy of the deal that I want.
Aight cool, if that’s what it is, that’s what it is. I’m not gonna jump out the window and just throw out a project. I’m trying to situate it so that it’s really dope and that it really structures what I think is warranted at this point in my career. I’m not playing for, you know, down the line. This is the second half of my game, for real for real, and to situate myself moving forward. So I’m trying to situate that, and I’m hoping that the film does even better than I would have thought, and gives me the leverage to situate it where I can put it out exactly how I’d like to. But there’s a lot of things that come into play when you’re dealing with Dilla, seriously.
He’s done so many different things. As the person that got the opportunity to do this, when I was picking tracks, I didn’t know the history of each track I was picking. I’m just hearing tracks and pulling the ones I liked, only to find out that there’s very much a history in the situations to some of the tracks that I pulled. So it took a walk, you know, finding out exactly what I could do and what I couldn’t do. It was that involved, It was quite the experience, but the project is amazing. And there’s some amazing guests on it. And like I said, you know, slowly you’ll start hearing a single here. But as an entire project, I’m still in the midst of situating exactly what I think it warrants.
The Choice Is Yours will premiere on Paramount+ Nov. 21.
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Source: Paramount+ / Paramount+
Dres of Black Sheep will be front and center on television screens as a new documentary on his life and career will debut on Paramount+.
As part of the 1990’s fabled rap duo Black Sheep, Dres has been at the forefront as one of Hip-Hop’s most magnetic personalities. Now, he is the latest figure from the culture to have his story captured on film as a new documentary, The Choice Is Yours, is set to debut on the Paramount+ streaming service. Dres announced the news by sharing the poster of the film through a post on X, formerly Twitter on Monday (November 6), with the caption “Pencil me in.”
The Choice Is Yours chronicles Dres’ journey as an MC, rising to fame with Black Sheep on the strength of their iconic single “The Choice Is Yours” and captures him as he works to rediscover the same stratospheric levels of success as an independent artist since the group’s demise. The documentary also features his work in highlighting the ills of the music industry that he’s experienced, sitting down with other artists, journalists, celebrities, and music executives in the process.
“Hip-Hop gives us the opportunity to blow up. It also gives us the opportunity to implode,” Dres says in the trailer. “As we strive to live up to our character, in the mirror we see the champion and challenger knowing the choice is yours.”
The documentary,y directed by Clark Slater, also features Dres’ work on his upcoming album, a special project that showcases his discovery of music from the late legendary producer J Dilla. Slater is best known for his work on the HBO documentary on DMX, Music Box:DMX:Don’t Try To Understand which was released in 2021. The hard drive of beats, which hadn’t been shared with the public until this point are bestowed upon Dres thanks to a chance meeting with someone very close to the producer who tasks him with making the next great Dilla album.
The Choice Is Yours premieres on Paramount+ on Tuesday, November 21. Check out the trailer for the documentary below.
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