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Universal Music Group (UMG) has filed a lawsuit claiming Chili’s used more than 60 copyrighted songs from Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and others on social media without permission, just months after the Beastie Boys accused the restaurant chain of the same thing.
In a complaint filed Tuesday (Oct. 10) in Manhattan federal court, the music giant accused Chili’s owner Brinker International Inc. of willfully using unlicensed music in dozens of promotional videos across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
“In order to draw the attention of consumers in the fast-moving world of social media, defendants chose to rely on the use of popular music as an integral part of their Chili’s messaging,” UMG’s lawyers write. “But despite this success, defendants have failed to pay plaintiffs for the music that serves as the soundtrack for Chili’s social media ads.”
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In addition to Grande and Bieber, UMG says the videos featured music from dozens of other stars, including Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg, Lana Del Rey, ABBA, Luke Bryan, Travis Scott, Bruno Mars, Lil Nas X, Earth Wind & Fire, The Weeknd and more.
The new case comes less than three months after Chili’s was accused of largely the same thing by the Beastie Boys. In that case, which remains pending, the iconic rap trio accuses the restaurant of using their 1994 smash “Sabotage” online, including in a video that mimicked the song’s 1970s-themed music video.
Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok provide huge libraries of licensed music for users to add to their videos. But there’s a key exception: The songs can’t be used for commercial or promotional videos posted by brands. That kind of content requires a separate “synch” license, just like any conventional advertisement on television.
That crucial distinction has led to numerous lawsuits in recent years.
Beginning in 2021, all three major labels sued drink maker Bang Energy for using hundreds of copyrighted songs in promotional TikTok videos, with Universal and Sony eventually winning large judgments. In May, Sony filed a case against Marriott over accusations that the hotel chain had used nearly 1,000 of its songs in social media posts. And in July, Kobalt and other publishers sued more than a dozen NBA teams over the same thing.
In Tuesday’s case against Chili’s, UMG argued that a sophisticated company with more than 1,600 restaurant locations would have known that it needed sync licenses to use well-known music in ads — or at least that it should have known.
“Defendants include successful companies promoting multiple restaurant franchises with their own legal departments and protecting their own intellectual property interests,” UMG’s lawyers write. “Despite defendants’ prior history of licensing music from plaintiffs for use in commercials, defendants did not seek to determine which of the videos at issue in this complaint used plaintiffs’ musical works.”
Brinker did not immediately return a request for comment.
A California appeals court has sided with The Offspring in a long-running court case filed by former drummer Ron Welty, rejecting his claims that he was owed millions more from the punk band’s $35 million catalog sale.
Welty’s lawsuit alleged that lead singer Bryan “Dexter” Holland had tried to “erase” his contributions to the Offspring, including by shorting him on the proceeds of the band’s 2015 catalog sale to Round Hill Music. But a Los Angeles judge rejected those accusations last year.
In a ruling Wednesday, California’s Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, saying there had been “no reversible error” in the lower judge’s decision. Welty raised numerous challenges to how the lower judge had handled the case, but the appeals court was not convinced by any of them: “The judgment and order are affirmed.
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Welty joined The Offspring in 1987 and served as the band’s drummer during its heyday, including on its 1998 album Americana that reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, before leaving the band in 2003 on undisclosed terms.
In his sweeping 2020 lawsuit, Welty accused Holland and the other members of numerous forms of wrongdoing: “This lawsuit seeks, among other things, redress for The Offspring’s failure to pay Mr. Welty his rightful share of the band’s proceeds and a prohibition against their ongoing efforts to harm Mr. Welty, his legacy with the band, and his ongoing career.”
Among other allegations, Welty claimed he had been entitled to a bigger cut of the Round Hill deal, in which the company paid $20 million for the rights to the band’s recorded masters — split among the band’s key performers — and another $15 million for the publishing rights, paid directly to Holland.
Welty claimed he deserved some of that publishing money, and argued in his lawsuit that he was owed at least $2.8 million more from the Round Hill transaction. But at a bench trial in 2022, Judge William F. Fahey largely rejected those accusations, calling some them “completely illogical.” During the proceedings, other members of The Offspring had testified that the structure of the deal was fair since Holland had written all of the band’s music.
In a written decision last year, Fahey ruled that the deal had been “structured in accordance with industry standards” and that Welty had failed to prove that he was entitled to a cut of Holland’s $15 million: “It is hard even to envision a reason why these two other band members would agree to such a structure unless they believed that Holland was the creator and owner of the music compositions.”
In March, the judge issued a final judgment in favor of the band, finalizing the earlier rulings and rejecting the rest of Welty’s claims. It was that ruling that was affirmed by Wednesday’s decision at the appeals court.
Following the ruling, Welty’s attorney, Jordanna G. Thigpen, said her client had “great respect” for the appellate court but was “contemplating the next step of appellate review.” Howard King, an attorney for The Offspring, declined to comment.
As Bad Boy Records founder Sean “Diddy” Combs sits in a Brooklyn prison awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges and prepares to fend off multiple civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault, those in the music industry are asking how much of his wealth could be at stake.
Sources tell Billboard that the hip-hop mogul has sold many of the assets that earned him hundreds of millions of dollars. And Forbes estimated that Combs’ net worth — once fueled by ventures in music, fashion, liquor and cable TV — has fallen from approximately $740 million in 2019 to $400 million as of this past June.
Federal prosecutors and attorneys for the alleged victims likely will go after the money Combs earned from his businesses and other assets, and his own legal defense potentially could cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars as well. That said, prosecutors will need to prove that the businesses were in some way connected to the alleged crimes, to which Combs has pled not guilty. Lawyers representing individuals suing Combs in civil court do not need to meet that barrier of proof. It is unclear when a jury trial will take place for the federal charges, and the many civil lawsuits he faces are at various stages of adjudication.
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Combs’ attorneys, representatives and federal prosecutors did not respond to requests for comment.
Here is a breakdown of Combs’ current financial picture viewed through his music, real estate and cable TV assets:
Bad Boy Records
While Combs began diversifying his investments long ago, his core music industry holdings have dissipated. He once owned his masters and publishing rights through Bad Boy Records. Currently, he may still own his publishing rights and albums recorded from 2010 onward, but he likely no longer owns the albums he recorded before 2009, which were the most successful of his career.
B.I.G. and Diddy
That’s because of a joint venture Combs entered with Warner Music Group for the entire Bad Boy catalog in 2005. The deal ended in 2009 with WMG retaining full ownership of the vast majority, if not all, of the catalog released by Bad Boy prior to that year. Those include the catalogs of The Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, Mase and another dozen or so platinum albums by Bad Boy artists.
In June, Billboard estimated that Diddy’s own catalog brings in $2.4 million annually in recorded masters revenue, as well as $600,000 in publishing revenue, of which his share is $222,000. We estimated his catalog would carry a valuation of $42 million.
Since determining that Combs no longer owns his best-selling albums, Billboard revised that estimate — based on a calculation that almost 60% of his catalog’s annual activity is owned by WMG — to $1.05 million. His music publishing earnings remain unchanged, which adds up to $1.25 million in take home pay.
Catalog
One asset Combs is unlikely to sell soon is his catalog because his the nature of the alleged abuses outlined in the various legal cases he is facing and the fact that recordings were not put out under a single, identifiable brand — he has released music as Puff Daddy, Puff Daddy & the Family, P. Diddy, Diddy and Diddy-Dirty Money — make it harder to market, institutional investors tell Billboard.
While private equity investors have no appetite for music issued under the Diddy names, financial sources say that music from other artists he has worked with still have value, and those artists could sell their income streams. However, some Bad Boy Records artists have asked the various majors if their albums might drop the Bad Boy logo, sources tell Billboard.
In 2023, Combs disclosed that he has been returning ownership of publishing to the artists who recorded on Bad Boy Records. In a Q&A with Billboard, he reported that Mase, Evans, The LOX, 112 and the estate of The Notorious B.I.G. are among the creatives who have already signed agreements to regain those rights.
REVOLT
Co-founded by Combs as a music cable channel in 2013, REVOLT was initially broadcast by Comcast and Time Warner Cable to a combined roughly 34 million subscribers. Over the past decade, it has built a reputation as a prominent black-owned media company and has been profitable since 2018. Last summer it was part of a group of investors bidding for a majority stake in Paramount Global’s BET Media Group. As a private company, it has never disclosed its financials. Combs stepped down from his role as chairman of REVOLT last November, and reports circulated in March that he sold his stake to an anonymous bidder. Sources tell Billboard Combs’ stake likely netted him a sum in the low to mid-eight figures.
Real Estate
It is documented in court documents filed in connection with the federal charges against Combs that Combs owns homes in Los Angeles and Miami. The latter, which is located on Miami’s exclusive Star Island has multiple pools, an on-site spa and a guesthouse was listed as part of his collateral for his $50 million bail bond. (Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky denied his release, and Combs’ attorneys filed an appeal this week.) Combs’ home in Beverly Hills is currently for sae for $61.5 million.
American roots reggae band Stick Figure decided to conduct an experiment earlier this year when they went on sale with tickets for their Sacred Sands Summer Tour 2024.
Hoping to make their tour as fan-friendly as possible, band leader Scott Woodruff and managers Thomas Cussins and Marina Petros at Ineffable Music Group decided to offer refunds to fans who bought tickets to the tour but couldn’t make the show.
“Given that the tour included numerous large-scale amphitheaters with some of the biggest promoters in the world,” the band had to agree to cover the costs of the refunds themselves, explained Cussins.
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Refunds are rarely allowed in the concert business and promoters have long been loathe to offer money-back options to fans, worried that a rush of last minute refunds could lead to heavy losses for shows that had previously been considered a sellout. But the problem with the “all sale are final” model, Cussins explained, is that fans might be hesitant to purchase tickets when they go on sale if they are worried about their availability months later.
A refund policy might make fans feel more confident about their purchase, explained Cussins who worked with Petros to develop the rules for Stick Figure’s first ever refund policy. In order for the band to recover the cost of the refund and sell returned tickets to new fans, the band required all refund requests be made up to 10 days before a show. In order to prevent scalpers from taking advantage of the refund policy, tickets listed on secondary market sites like Stubhub were excluded from the promotion.
“Enforcing this second rule was challenging, and some tickets intended for resale likely slipped through the cracks,” Cussins said. “However, on the whole, everyone acted in good faith and used this program as intended.”
The band ultimately sold 135,446 tickets for its 16-date Sacred Sands tour and granted 750 refunds, equal to about $77,852.24, or .55% of the revenue generated from 2024 tour.
“These numbers clearly show that this is a successful formula for a band,” Cussins explains. “As this tour was largely sold out, nearly all refunded tickets were resold. Even in the case of a less well-attended tour, this loss would be worth it based on the statistics from our post-tour ticket buyer survey.”
According to the survey, 65% of buyers were aware of the refund policy and of those who were aware, 82.3% said that the band’s refund policy made them feel more comfortable buying tickets.
“There is a strong case to be made that losing less than 1% of tickets later is still worth the overall boost in consumer confidence,” Cussins concludes.
Based on their experience, Cussins noted that promoters, venues and artists could improve the ticketing ecosystem by offering refunds to “verified fans (not resellers) up until 14 days before a show, with the option to extend this to 7 days depending on stakeholder determination,” Cussins says.
That doesn’t mean taking an aggressive stance against resale, but instead allowing the practice “with a few guidelines to avoid abuse” like speculative ticket selling, where a reseller lists a ticket they have not already purchased. Abuse and price gouging can be limited through thoughtful ticket distribution practices and market monitoring, coupled with dynamic pricing models that keep prices affordable on the secondary market, Cussins said.
“Adding the security of a refund option,” on top of the above secondary market reforms, Cussins concludes, “will increase consumer confidence and drive more early ticket sales, which limits risk for bands, venues, and promoters.”
Spotify made its free tier available to listeners in South Korea on Wednesday (Oct. 9). When the streaming service launched in the country in 2021, it only made its subscription option available for music fans.
“We’re opening the door to every Korean listener to start discovering and connecting with millions of songs and podcasts with our technology and service,” Gautam Talwar, general manager, Asia Pacific, for Spotify, said in a statement. That “means huge potential for new audiences, discoverability and ultimately, more revenue for artists.”
South Korea was the seventh largest music market in the world in 2022, according to the IFPI, trailing the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Germany, China, and France. “Countries such as China and South Korea have significant growth of fans paying for streaming,” Shridhar Subramaniam, Sony Music’s president of corporate strategy and market development, Asia & Middle East, told the IFPI. “The paid ecosystem is established, and now the challenge is to look at the value of music on streaming and social media platforms.”
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Talwar said average monthly streams of South Korean artists on Spotify now exceed 5.8 billion. That is “over 70% growth since Spotify’s launch in South Korea three years ago — spanning across K-Pop to Hip-hop, Indie and more — with markets such as the United States, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, India, South Korea and Taiwan among the top streamers.” Talwar added. “We are committed to growing and expanding artists’ reach worldwide and the launch of our Free offering in the market will add even more Korean listeners to that mix.”
Spotify added 7 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2024, exceeding its forecasts. It now has more than 626 million total monthly active users, and 246 million subscribers.
Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services, which provides physical and digital archiving for the media and entertainment businesses, has struck a partnership with ANALOGr Authentication to help artists preserve their cultural legacies, the companies tell Billboard. Through the collaboration, artists will have an end-to-end solution to protect their assets while monetizing and preserving them for future generations.
Iconic producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are the first musicians to have their assets valued under the partnership, from musical instruments to recording gear the duo used in their collaborations with such A-list artists as Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Luther Vandross, George Michael and Gwen Stefani. This marks the first time the Grammy-winning producers have properly archived, restored and preserved their assets.
The services provided under the partnership include ANALOGr’s “research and documentation services to organize, authenticate and validate the provenance and value of artists’ physical assets” and Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services’ media preservation services, according to a press release. Iron Mountain additionally stores video documentation and digital images of artists’ assets on its Smart Vault digital media preservation platform.
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The Jam and Lewis assets archived and preserved by Iron Mountain and ANALOGr include:
A Yamaha S400 piano, which the duo likely used to help create songs like “Again” by Janet Jackson and “4 Seasons of Loneliness” by Boyz II Men.
A Yamaha CP70B portable piano, which was used for songwriting and can also be heard on “Tender Love” by the Force MDs.
A LinnDrum LM-2 drum machine, most prominently used to create 90% of the drum sounds on Janet Jackson’s 1986 breakthrough album, Control.
A Roland TR-808 drum machine, used on “Just Be Good to Me” by The S.O.S. Band as well as songs by Janet Jackson, Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey.
“Partnering with ANALOGr, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have helped us to pioneer an end-to-end solution that allows creators to be in the front seat of protecting their legacy,” said Greg Maratea, director of global client solutions for Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services, in a statement. “With the support of our proprietary technology Smart Vault, Iron Mountain’s highly secure digital media preservation platform, we’re breathing new life into legacy assets and shielding artists’ legacies by directly working with them to preserve what they find most valuable for generations to come.”
“At ANALOGr Authentication, our mission is to ensure that artists’ legacies are not only preserved but also elevated through comprehensive valuation and protection strategies,” added Thomas Scriven, CEO of ANALOGr. “Partnering with Iron Mountain and working with legends like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis allows us to pioneer a new way for creators to safeguard their cultural contributions and inspire future generations.”
Jam and Lewis also touted the partnership, noting that one of their “goals has been to future-proof our assets and understand their true value. So, when Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services introduced us to ANALOGr, we were excited to work with them. Now, our assets are properly covered by special insurance for their true value, and most importantly, our stories associated with our gear and memorabilia are forever secure. When the time comes to sell these items or pass them on to our heirs, we know the history is intact and truthful, and the value is there for the future.”
Latin music revenue hit a record high of $685 million in the first half of 2024, according to the RIAA’s mid-year Latin music report released Thursday (Oct. 10). According to the analysis, Latin increased 7% compared to the first half of 2023, led by paid streaming subscriptions, which account for two-thirds of U.S. Latin revenue. Furthermore, Latin music revenues in the first half of the year once again grew faster than the overall recorded music market.
While the report doesn’t specify which artists or genres are directly driving this mid-year record high, Latin music’s bump can be a contributed to a number of artists who are fueling a movement. From Karol G to Peso Pluma, who are still riding high from a historic 2023, and newcomers like Xavi, it’s safe to say that a diverse collective of acts have helped usher another record year for Latin music.
“Latin music keeps soaring to new heights — setting US revenue records as we report today and driving the culture forward across the globe,” Michele Ballantyne, RIAA president & chief operating officer, said in a statement. “There’s a reason Latin is the fastest-growing genre on US streaming services. Fans just can’t get enough of its undeniable energy, emotion, power and joy.”
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The RIAA’s mid-year report explains that paid streaming subscriptions contributed more than two-thirds of total revenues. Overall, U.S. paid subscriptions reached a record average of 99 million in 2024 and delivered 68% of total revenues for US Latin music. Combined revenues from ad-supported, on-demand streaming services (including YouTube, Vevo, the free version of Spotify and social media platforms) provide nearly 25% of the total value of Latin music, compared to 10% for overall recorded music revenues.
Meanwhile, digital services (including paid and ad-supported streaming, online radio options, and digital downloads) provided 98% of total Latin music revenues in the first half of 2024. Physical revenues experienced a growth, up 21% compared to the same period in 2022.
“Latin music in the US continues to break through and reach new heights, now providing nearly 8% of total recorded music revenues in the country. Strong growth across all major formats — including a doubling of physical revenues — has enabled Latin music’s diverse mix of new and established artists’ innovative styles to fuel sustained momentum for over a decade,” added Matt Bass, RIAA vice president, research.
In April, the RIAA reported that, for a second year in a row, Latin music revenues in the U.S. had exceeded the $1 billion mark on the wings of 16% growth that outpaced the overall market.
The 35th anniversary Billboard Latin Music Week, which will feature exclusive panels, conversations and performances by Latin music’s biggest stars, will take place Oct. 14-18 in Miami. Purchase tickets to the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week here.
The ASCAP Lab, ASCAP’s innovation program, has announced this year’s cohort for their AI and the Business of Music Challenge. Featuring CRESQA, Music Tomorrow, RoEx, SoundSafe.ai and Wavelets AI, these start-ups will take part in a 12-week course, in partnership with NYC Media Lab, led by the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, to receive mentorship and small grants to develop their ideas.
As part of the initiative, the start-ups will receive hands-on support from the ASCAP Lab, as well as ASCAP’s network of writer and publisher members, to help them optimize their products for the music creator community.
While last year’s cohort of companies focused on AI for music creation and experience, the 2024 AI and the Business of Music Challenge is much more focused on commercial solutions that can help the music industry better manage data and improve workflows.
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ASCAP Chief Strategy and Digital Officer Nick Lehman says of the 2024 cohort: “ASCAP’s creator-first, future-forward commitment makes it imperative for us to embrace technology while simultaneously protecting the rights of creators. The dialogue, understanding and relationships that the ASCAP Lab Challenge creates with the music startup community enable us to drive progress for the industry and deliver on this commitment.”
Meet the ASCAP Lab Challenge teams for 2024 below:
CRESQA: An AI social media content assistant designed for songwriters and musicians that automates the process of social media strategy development and helps generate fully personalized post ideas and schedules for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, Facebook and more.
Music Tomorrow: Analytics tools that monitor and boost artists’ algorithmic performance on streaming platforms, using AI for advanced audience insights and automation that improve an artist’s content discoverability, listener engagement and team efficiency.
RoEx: AI-driven tools for multitrack mixing, mastering, audio cleanup and quality control, designed to streamline and enhance the final steps of the creative process by delivering a professional and balanced mix with ease.
SoundSafe.ai: Robust, state-of-the-art audio watermarking using AI to enhance security, reporting and the detection of real-time piracy and/or audio deepfakes.
Wavelets AI: Tools for artists, labels, copyright holders, content distributors and DSPs that help reduce IP infringement by detecting AI vocals in music.
Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs are demanding an investigation into whether federal authorities leaked evidence of the racketeering and sex trafficking case to the media, including the infamous surveillance video of Combs assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie in 2016.
In a scathing court filing late on Wednesday (Oct. 9), Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo claims there has been “a series of unlawful government leaks, which have led to damaging, highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial.”
Agnifilo calls the leak of the Cassie video the “most egregious example” of the problem, but says it was just “one of a long and documented history of leaks and false statements made with one purpose: to savage Mr. Combs’ reputation prior to trial.”
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“While the government’s misconduct in this case is particularly egregious, it is unfortunately part of a trend in this district — the government has learned that it can strategically leak information with impunity,” Agnifilo wrote.
The filing asks the judge overseeing the case to order a hearing into the allegations and to allow Combs’ lawyers to seek out evidence of such leaks from prosecutors and law enforcement. It also asks the judge to issue a gag order barring any further leaks, and to prevent prosecutors from citing any leaked evidence during the eventual trial.
Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, was once one of the most powerful men in the music industry. But last month, he was indicted by federal prosecutors over accusations of sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery. If convicted on all the charges, he potentially faces a sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors allege that Combs ran a sprawling criminal operation aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” The charges detailed “freak offs” in which Combs and others would allegedly ply victims with drugs and then coerce them into having sex with male sex workers, as well as alleged acts of violence and intimidation to keep victims silent.
“For decades, Sean Combs … abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. “To do so, Combs relied on the employees, resources and the influence of his multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled.”
That indictment was preceded by repeated media reports that a federal criminal probe of Combs was underway, as well as well-publicized law enforcement raids on his Miami and Los Angeles homes. In the filing on Wednesday, Agnifilo said that media coverage had been fed by “a steady stream of false and prejudicial statements” and leaks from federal agents at the Department of Homeland Security.
The filing also alleges that government employees had “repeatedly leaked grand jury information and materials to the press to raise public hostility against Mr. Combs.” Agnifilo pointed specifically to the Cassie video, which showed Combs striking his then-girlfriend in the hallway of a hotel and made headlines when CNN released it in May
“The videotape was leaked to CNN for one reason alone: to mortally wound the reputation and the prospect of Sean Combs successfully defending himself against these allegations,” Agnifilo wrote. “Rather than using the videotape as trial evidence, alongside other evidence that gives it context and meaning, the agents misused it in the most prejudicial and damaging way possible. The government knew what it had: a frankly deplorable video recording of Sean Combs in a towel hitting, kicking and dragging a woman in full view of a camera in the hallway of the hotel.”
Dr. Dre is facing a $10 million lawsuit accusing him of a “malicious campaign of harassment” against a psychiatrist who says he served as a marriage counselor and mediator for the rapper and his ex-wife before and during their divorce.
In a case filed Wednesday (Oct. 9) in Los Angeles court, Dr. Charles J. Sophy claimed Dre (Andre Young) had subjected him to an “ongoing barrage of threats” after he had “worked diligently” to help him resolve his disputes with then-wife Nicole Young.
“Rather than treating the mediation process as an opportunity for healing, [Dre] decided to take his frustrations about the mediation out on Dr. Sophy — frustrations that manifested themselves in the form of a nearly year-long sustained campaign of late-night texts, threats of intimidation and violence, and homophobic rhetoric,” writes the doctor’s lawyer, Christopher Frost of the firm Frost LLP.
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The lawsuit seeks a restraining order against further harassment, as well as monetary damages that the accuser’s attorneys say should total at least $10 million. A representative for Dr. Dre did not immediately return a request for comment.
Nicole Young filed for divorce from Dr. Dre in 2020 after 24 years of marriage, citing allegations of abusive behavior that Dre vehemently denied. After another 18 months of legal wrangling, the couple finalized their divorce in December 2021 with a $100 million settlement.
According to Sophy’s lawsuit, the pair engaged him in 2018 for a “joint psychotherapist-patient relationship” in which he provided therapy and marriage counseling. After the divorce case began, he says he continued to work with the couple, along with their attorneys, to mediate the terms of the dissolution.
In February 2023, Sophy claims that after months of no contact, Dre began harassing him via text message. According to an alleged screenshot included in the complaint, in the first such message, Dre told Sophy that he had been told something “disturbing” by an unnamed person, followed by a threat: “You’re going to have to pay for that.”
Over the two months following that first text, Sophy says Dre repeatedly sent him threatening texts, accusing the doctor of “ethical breaches” and threatening to report him to medical regulators. In one, he allegedly told Sophy, “you f—ed with the wrong one”; in another, Dre allegedly said he was “not playing, trust me.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Dre allegedly wrote in an April 2023 text, “until you explain to me why you tried to talk [an unnamed person] into saying negative things about me to the media.” Sophy says there is “no truth behind these baseless and far-fetched accusations” and that he tried to ignore the threats, but that he eventually began to fear for his safety.
“Young, a prominent and powerful figure in the music industry with a well-documented history of violence and abuse, carried out a series of unlawful acts deliberately intended to threaten, intimidate, terrorize, and ultimately ruin Dr. Sophy personally and professionally,” the lawsuit reads.
The threats extended beyond text messages, according to the lawsuit. In one alleged incident, Sophy claims that fake FBI agents, hired by Dre, arrived at his gated community and told a security guard that they needed to “talk” with the doctor at his home.
“This incident, which occurred immediately after the initial texts were sent in February, was not a coincidence,” Sophy’s lawyers write. “It was a calculated, unlawful attempt … to threaten his physical safety and send the unmistakable message that Young can reach Dr. Sophy even in the sanctity of his home.”
The incident caused Sophy to “fear for his life” and “resort to extreme security measures,” including hiring private security and wearing a bulletproof vest. His lawyers say the “egregiousness” of Dre’s conduct eventually “compelled Dr. Sophy to seek redress and protection” in the courts.
“Dr. Sophy does not relish suing a former patient,” the doctor’s lawyers write. “Nobody should have to live in constant fear. But Dr. Sophy does — ironically, for no other reason than he tried to help Young to resolve his own family’s conflict.”
In technical terms, the lawsuit accuses Dre of harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress, as well as violation of a California law prohibiting the use of force or threat of violence to interfere with someone’s civil rights. The lawsuit also claims that some of the threats were based on Sophy’s sexual orientation, meaning they violated a California hate crime statute.