Legal News
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Electronic music producer Bassnectar is asking a federal judge to dismiss a long-running civil lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing three underage girls, arguing that all three alleged victims lied about their ages and had themselves instigated the relationships.
In a motion filed Monday (Nov. 4) in Nashville federal court, attorneys for the DJ (Lorin Ashton) argued that the case did not need to be decided by a jury because the discovery process â the investigation of evidence during a civil lawsuit â had revealed that there was no merit to the allegations.
âDiscovery has confirmed that when each of the plaintiffs first contacted defendant, they lied about not only their ages, but also their level of education, as well as their work and life experiences,â his lawyers write. âEach plaintiff admitted to deceiving defendant into believing that she was over the age of eighteen.â
Ashtonâs lawyers also say the discovery process has also made âcrystal clearâ that the DJ ânever forced â in any way â plaintiffs into having a sexual relationship with him.â
âTo the contrary, the record demonstrates that the pursuit of a sexual relationship between the parties was instigated by Plaintiffs, each of whom was always free to continue it or end it,â his attorneys write. âPlaintiffs simply cannot prove that they were coerced or that they felt that they had no other choice but to engage in a sexual relationship with Defendant.â
The filing comes more than three years after the three women â Rachel Ramsbottom, Alexis Bowling, and Jenna Houston â filed their lawsuit, accusing Ashton of using his âpower and influence to groom and ultimately sexually victimize underage girls.â
The lawsuit, which accuses Ashton of sex trafficking, child pornography and negligence, claims that the star would invite minors to his shows, bring them to a hotel room and provide âlarge sums of cash and other items of valueâ in exchange for sex.
Last month, Ashtonâs attorneys moved for âsummary judgment,â meaning the judge would rule on the case without submitting it to a jury. They cited, among many other arguments, that state law enforcement had investigated Ramsbottomâs accusations and federal authorities had looked into Houstonâs â and that prosecutors had declined to file charges in both instances.
Responding to that motion last month, attorneys for the accusers blasted Ashton for seeking to dismiss the case, claiming he had made damning admissions during depositions, including âknowing full wellâ that Ramsbottom was under 18. They also argued that he had clearly âgroomedâ them in such a way that facilitated the abuse.
âHe entered their teenaged lives as a famous celebrity, engendered their trust, and made it such that his withdrawal of affection or the threat thereof, which the plaintiffs now understand to be abusive, caused each to continue their interaction with defendant,â their lawyers wrote at the time.
With Mondayâs reply from Ashtonâs attorneys, the case is now in the hands of the judge, who will decide in the coming weeks or months whether to order a jury trial or dismiss the accusations. Attorneys for both sides declined to comment.
Rapper Plies is suing Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla, Cardi B and Souja Boy for copyright infringement over allegations that the 2024 song âWanna Beâ features an uncleared sample from his 2008 track âMe & My Goons.â
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court, says the Megan and GloRilla stole Pliesâ material indirectly â that they used a legally-licensed sample of a Soulja Boy song that itself illegally borrowed from âGoons.â
âDefendant Soulja Boy authorized Megan thee Stallion and GloRilla to sample [his song,]â lawyers for Plies write. â[Wanna Be] incorporates substantial elements of the copyrighted material underlying âMe & My Goons,â without authorization from plaintiffs.â
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âWanna Be,â released by Megan and GloRilla in early April, debuted at No. 11 on the Hot 100. A remix, featuring Cardi, was released in late May. The song features a prominent sample of Soulja Boyâs 2010 track âPretty Boy Swag,â which spent 16 weeks on the chart that summer.
Plies (Algernod Washington), best known for his 2007 singles âShawtyâ and âHypnotized,â names all four stars (Megan Pete, Gloria Woods, Belcalis Almanzar and Deandre Way) as defendants in the lawsuit, as well as various companies and labels allegedly involved in the song.
Reps for the defendants did not immediately return requests for comment.
Lawsuits like the one Plies filed Wednesday â claiming that a legal sample featured an unlicensed sample â sound strange but arenât uncommon. In the modern music industry, all samples in major releases are strictly cleared, and even borderline interpolations are often licensed to avoid any risk of litigation. But copyrighted material featured within the sampled songs can be trickier to identify.
Last month, a lawsuit filed by Barry Whiteâs estate claimed that Future and Metro Boominâs âLike Thatâ sampled from a 1980s hip-hop song that had ripped off Whiteâs music. And in May, a little known New Orleans group sued BeyoncĂŠ for the same thing over a sample of Big Freedia featured in âBreak My Soul,â though they dropped the case several months later. Whiteâs case remains pending; the case against BeyoncĂŠ was quickly dropped.
Read the entire lawsuit here:
Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine has reached a deal with federal prosecutors after his recent arrest over alleged violations of his supervised release, agreeing to spend a month in prison and another under house arrest.
The rapper was charged last week with breaking the terms of his years-long probation, which stems from a 2018 plea deal he struck with prosecutors over his involvement with a gang called Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.
In a letter to the judge filed Tuesday, federal prosecutors said Tekashi had agreed to admit to the probation violations and serve one month in prison, followed by a month of home incarceration, a month of less-restrictive home detention, and then finally a month of curfew.
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The deal will also extend Tekashiâs supervised release â which had been set to expire in six months â to a full year following his release from prison. The rapperâs attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.
Once a rising star in the world of hip-hop and social media, Tekashi was charged in November 2018 with federal racketeering and murder conspiracy charges over his involvement with a New York street gang called Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods. Prosecutors claimed the gang âwreaked havoc on New York Cityâ by âengaging in brazen acts of violence.â
But just a day after being arrested, Tekashi cut a deal with federal prosecutors to flip on his crew in return for lenience. Taking the witness stand during a 2019 trial, he offered detailed and frank testimony about his involvement in the gang and his former gang mates.
Under the deal with prosecutors, Tekashi was sentenced to two years in prison and five years of supervised release and ordered to serve 1,000 hours of community service and pay a $35,000 fine.
The sentence was set to run until July 2020, but Tekashi was released early, in April 2020, after his attorneys argued that the coronavirus pandemic posed an increased risk to him because he has asthma.
Last week, prosecutors alleged that Tekashi had violated his release conditions on numerous occasions, including by traveling to Las Vegas without permission, failing to submit for drug testing and testing positive for methamphetamine.
At his arraignment hearing, the rapper pleaded not guilty and his attorney argued that the failed drug test was from the use of prescribed Adderall. But the judge was unswayed and ordered him jailed until his next court date, citing a âbroader patternâ of misconduct during parole that the judge said suggests a âfull spectrum disregard for the law.â
Following Tuesdayâs agreement, the judge ordered both sides to appear at a hearing next week (Nov. 12) to explain the plea deal and why the sentence âreflects the proper sentence for these violations.â
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: Young Thug ends his years-long YSL RICO case with a guilty plea that results in no prison time; UMG accuses distributor TuneCore of âindustrial-scale copyright infringementâ; Ed Sheeran wins a case over âLetâs Get It On,â; Metro Boomin faces a sexual assault lawsuit; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Young Thug Heads Home
And just like that, it was all over for Young Thug. More than two years after the Grammy-winning rapper was arrested as part of a sweeping Atlanta gang case, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve just 15 years probation with no prison time â a stunning end to a legal saga that rocked the music industry.
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Pitting prosecutors in Americaâs rap capital against one of hip-hopâs biggest stars, the case against Thug and his alleged âYSLâ gang raised big questions â about the fairness of the criminal justice system; about violent personas in modern hip-hop; and about prosecutors using rap lyrics as evidence.
Thug, a chart-topping rapper and producer who helped shape the sound of hip-hop in the 2010s, was accused of being the kingpin of a violent gang that had wrought âhavocâ on the Atlanta area for nearly a decade. But the case was a mess from the start, featuring endless witness lists, procedural missteps, a jailhouse stabbing and a bizarre episode that saw a judge removed from the case.
How did Young Thug go from that mess â the trial had no end in sight and was set to run well into 2025 â to walking away a free man? Go read my deep dive on the YSL endgame to find out.
Other top stories this weekâŚ
âRAMPANT PIRACYâ â Universal Music Group filed a lawsuit against TuneCore and parent company Believe over allegations of âmassiveâ copyright infringement, accusing the digital distributor of serving as a âhubâ for the widespread dissemination of illegal copies of songs on streaming platforms and social media services, including those by Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and many others. Seeking a whopping $500 million in damages, UMG claims TuneCore pursued ârapid growthâ of its DIY distribution services by turning a blind eye to ârampant piracyâ among its users: âBelieve is a company built on industrial-scale copyright infringement,â said the lawsuit. In a statement, Believe and TuneCore said they âstrongly refute these claimsâ and would âfight themâ in court.
âMUSICAL BUILDING BLOCKSâ â Ed Sheeran won a ruling at a federal appeals court confirming that his âThinking Out Loudâ did not infringe the copyright to Marvin Gayeâs âLetâs Get It On,â effectively ending one of several cases over the sonic similarities between the two hits. The lawsuit argued that Sheeran copied a chord progression and rhythm from Gayeâs iconic track, but the appeals court said the two songs share only âfundamental musical building blocksâ that are âubiquitous in pop musicâ â and that granting a âmonopolyâ on them to any single songwriter would âthreaten to stifle creativity.â
METRO ALLEGATIONS â Superstar producer Metro Boomin was hit with a civil lawsuit over allegations that he raped and impregnated a woman named Vanessa LeMaistre during a drug-and-booze-fueled incident at a recording studio in 2016. The lawsuit claimed that the alleged assault was referenced in a song he produced â a surprising accusation, given that Metro does not write lyrics or rap himself and the lyrics in question were by 21 Savage and Offset.
TEKASHI ARRESTED â Tekashi 6ix9ine (Daniel Hernandez) was arrested and charged over allegations that he violated a plea agreement struck with prosecutors when he infamously agreed to testify against his former Brooklyn gangmates back in 2018. The provocative rapper had just six months left on the five years of supervised release he secured under that deal, but prosecutors accused him of traveling to Las Vegas without permission and failing a drug test for meth. Tekashi denied the charges at an arraignment hearing, but the judge â the same one who signed off on the plea deal â cited a âfull spectrum disregard for the lawâ and ordered him held until his next court date later this month.
MEGAN THEE PLAINTIFF â Megan Thee Stallion sued a YouTuber and social media personality named Milagro Gramz (Milagro Elizabeth Cooper), accusing her of âchurning out falsehoodsâ about the criminal case stemming from the 2020 incident in which Tory Lanez shot Megan in the foot. Calling Gramz a âmouthpiece and puppetâ for Lanez, the superstar seemed intent on using the case as a warning shot to other bloggers who allegedly share false information about the high-profile case: âEnough is enough.â
âOPAQUE AND UNFAIRâ â A federal appeals court ruled that Live Nation and Ticketmaster must face a class action claiming they abuse their dominance to charge âextraordinarily highâ prices to hundreds of thousands of ticket buyers. In doing so, the court rejected Live Nationâs argument that fans had signed agreements that required them to resolve disputes via private arbitration. The court not only called those agreements âunconscionable and unenforceableâ but also âopaque and unfairâ; âpoorly drafted and riddled with typosâ; and âso dense, convoluted and internally contradictory to be borderline unintelligible.â
CASSIE VIDEO CLASH â Prosecutors in the case against Sean âDiddyâ Combs told a federal judge that they had not been behind the leaking of the infamous 2016 surveillance video showing the rapper assaulting his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, arguing that such accusations were merely gamesmanship by Diddyâs defense team with the goal of trying to âsuppress a damning piece of evidence.â
DIDDY ACCUSER UNMASKED â A federal judge in one of the many civil cases against Combs ruled that one of his accusers cannot use a âJane Doeâ pseudonym, saying her right to avoid âpublic scrutinyâ and âembarrassmentâ does not trump Diddyâs right to defend himself against such âheinousâ allegations. The ruling is not binding on other judges, but it could influence how they handle the issue of numerous other cases that have been filed against Combs by Doe plaintiffs.
MADLIB v. EGON â Hip-hop producer Madlib filed a lawsuit against his former manager Eothen âEgonâ Alapatt over allegations of ârank self-dealing,â claiming the exec abused his role to claim undue profits from Madlibâs music and commit other alleged misdeeds. The case claims that Egon believes he can âkeep profiting from Madlib work and goodwill because there is nothing Madlib can do about itâ and is demanding that the artist âbuy him outâ if he wants to end the relationship.

Universal Music Group (UMG), ABKCO and Concord Music Group have filed a lawsuit against Believe and its distribution company TuneCore, accusing them of âmassive ongoing infringementsâ of their sound recordings, including tracks by Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, ABBA, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, DJ Snake, Aqua and more. The companies are seeking âat least $500,000,000â in damages.Â
In a complaint filed Monday evening (Nov. 4) in Manhattan federal court by Andrew Bart and Gianni Servodidio at Jenner & Block, UMG, ABKCO and Concord Music Group accuse Believe of being âoverrun with fraudulent âartistsâ and pirate record labelsâ and distributing copies of those fraudulent recordings to various streaming services and social media sites.Â
Lawyers for the plaintiffs claim that âBelieve makes little effort to hide its illegal actionsâ and that the allegedly infringing recordings are âoften minor variants on the names of⌠famous recording artists and titles of their most successful works.â The complaint says the alleged fraudsters attempt to avoid detection of the allegedly infringing recordings â some of which, they claim, are âsped upâ or âremixedâ versions of popular songs â by using misspellings of popular artist names, including âKendrik Laamar,â âArriana Gramde,â âJutin Biberâ and âLlady Gaga.âÂ
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âBelieve is fully aware that its business model is fueled by rampant piracyâ in âpursuit of rapid growth,â the lawsuit claims, adding that the company has âturned a blind eyeâ to the infringing content that makes its way to social media and streaming services through its platform.Â
Additionally, lawyers for UMG and the other plaintiffs say that âBelieve has taken advantage of the content management claiming systemâ on YouTube âto divertâ and âdelay⌠payment of royaltiesâ that belong to the record labels. It is âtelling,â they add, that after YouTube resolves these conflicts regarding the rightful ownership of these sound recordings, âBelieve continue[s] to distribute the exact same track to other digital music service providers and to seek royalties for use of that track from those providers.â
This is not the first time bad actors have been accused of using YouTubeâs content management system to claim royalties that are not rightfully theirs. In 2022, two men in Phoenix, Arizona pled guilty to claiming $23 million worth of YouTube royalties from unknowing Latin musicians like Julio Iglesias, Anuel AA, and Daddy Yankee despite having no actual ties to those artists. To facilitate claiming those royalties, the two men, operating under the company name MediaMuv, used AdRev, a rights management firm owned by Downtown.Â
âBelieve is a company built on industrial-scale copyright infringement,â said a spokesperson for UMG in a statement. âTheir illegal practices are not limited to cheating artists on major labels but artists on independent labels as well â including artists on the independent labels within the trade bodies of which Believe is itself a member. Itâs no wonder that Believe has been outspoken against the streaming reform principles for which so many major and independent labels have been advocating. Why? Because such reforms would undermine and expose their system of building scale and market presence by distributing music for which they have no rights and illegally collecting royalties to enrich themselves and their co-conspirators.â
The complaint specifically charges Believe with direct copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, direct infringement of pre-1972 sound recordings, contributory infringement of pre-1972 sound recordings and vicarious infringement of pre-1972 sound recordings.
Representatives for Believe and TuneCore did not immediately respond to Billboardâs requests for comment.
Itâs been a busy year for TuneCoreâs parent company Believe. On March 1, the French music giant, which was publicly traded on the Euronext Paris stock exchange, announced that its board of directors had approved the move to take it private and that there was an âinterested partyâ looking to acquire it. First, however, the bidder was requesting due diligence information and financial data ahead of making a formal bid. Later that month, the name of the bidder was revealed when it was announced that Warner Music Group (WMG) had issued a formal notice to disclose its interest in acquiring Believe, which also owns publishing administrator Sentric as well as labels like NaĂŻve, Nuclear Blast and Groove Attack.
In early April, however, WMG called off its plans to submit a formal offer. The label did not elaborate on its decision, stating only that it was made âafter careful consideration.â On April 19, Believeâs board of directors announced it was supporting an offer to take the company private at 15 euros ($15.98) per share from a consortium of funds managed by TCV, EQT X and Believe chairman/CEO Denis Ladegaillerie. The boardâs three independent members unanimously voted in favor of an opinion that the bid was in the interest of minority shareholders.Â
Fraud and copyright infringement have been hot-button issues in the music business as the industry becomes more and more democratized, offering anyone the opportunity to release music in hours â sometimes minutes â at the click of a button. In response, TuneCore, along with CD Baby, Distrokid and other competitors, set up âMusic Fights Fraud,â a coalition designed to stop bad actors from hopping from service-to-service to release songs they donât own the rights to. A number of initiatives, including Credits Due, have since launched to try to fix metadata problems in the music business that can leave artists susceptible to royalty stealing and fraud, particularly on sites like YouTube.Â
Still, despite these efforts, TuneCore and other DIY distributors have been accused of allowing bad actors to use their sites to upload infringing or fraudulent content. In August 2020, Round Hill Musicâs publishing arm sued TuneCore for âwillful and unauthorized useâ of 219 of their sound recordings. And in 2022, Billboard reported that some music executives believe Create Music Group games the system on YouTube to claim royalties, with one label source claiming the company was doing so âegregiously.âÂ
Just last month, TikTok also rang the alarm bell about fraudulent content when it backed out of licensing negotiations with Merlin, a coalition of indie labels and distributors, to allegedly curb users uploading works they donât own the rights to on the platform. TikTok said it would instead pursue individual licensing deals with labels and distributors that it considered to be safe.
British prosecutors say they have been given a file of evidence from police about alleged sexual offenses by comedian Russell Brand and are considering whether to charge him. The Crown Prosecution Service said late Saturday (Nov. 2) that âwe have been passed a file by the police to consider a charging decision in this case. […]
When Young Thug went free Thursday (Oct. 31) after more than two years in custody, it didnât come out of nowhere. It was the crescendo of a series of events that started months ago, transforming an endless, oft-delayed trial into a moment of catharsis for the superstar artist.
In June, the trial against Young Thugâs alleged âYSLâ gang had been churning along for more than a year, stretching across 10 months of jury selection and five months of testimony. As the prosecutors worked through a vast list of witnesses, there was no clear end in sight â the trial was expected to run well into 2025, but even that was just a guess.
By this week, the state was handing out plea deals to multiple defendants, including offering one to Thug that would have sent him home immediately. He refused to take it, and his attorneys felt bold enough to simply plead guilty and hope the judge would set him free â a gamble that paid off.
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After a whirlwind week, itâs worth asking the question: How on earth did we get here?
The story starts on June 10, when Thugâs attorney Brian Steel made a stunning revelation in open court. He said he had learned of a secret âex parteâ meeting between Judge Ural Glanville, prosecutors and a key witness named Kenneth Copeland, and claimed that it warranted a mistrial.
Up to that point, Glanvilleâs handling of the case had resulted in an exceptionally slow pace. Though a sprawling racketeering case against many defendants was always going take time, the Glanville approach â featuring an unprecedented 10-month jury-selection process, repeated âcomfort breaks,â and other delays in testimony â had put the case on pace to be the longest in state history.
At the June hearing, Steel alleged far more than bad pacing by Judge Glanville. He claimed that during the secret meeting, Glanville had helped prosecutors coerce the uncooperative Copeland into testifying with threats of extended jail time, all without notifying defense counsel.
The revelation set into motion case-changing events. Rather than addressing Steelâs concerns, Glanville repeatedly demanded to know who had told him about the meeting. When Steel refused to do so, the judge held him in criminal contempt and sentenced him to jail time â a ruling that was later overturned on appeal.
In the weeks that followed, Glanville repeatedly maintained that the ex parte meeting had been proper. But amid a barrage of demands that he either declare a mistrial or step aside, he finally referred the issue to another a judge to decide whether he could continue presiding over the trial.
On July 15, Judge Rachel Krause said that he could not. Though she ruled that the meeting did not appear to have been illegal, the judge ruled that Glanville would be removed from the case in order to preserve âthe publicâs confidence in the judicial system.â
That ruling punted the case to Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, a Fulton County jurist with a reputation for efficiency. She quickly showed why: On her first day on the bench, Whitaker said she wanted to pick up the pace, demanding that prosecutors be more organized in how they were presenting witnesses and testimony. âIt should not take another seven months,â Whitaker said at that hearing.
By late September, Whitaker appeared to have reached her witsâ end with the prosecutors trying the case. Visibly frustrated at a Sept. 30 hearing, the judge blasted Chief Deputy DA Adriane Love and other government attorneys for âpoor lawyering,â saying that their âhaphazardâ approach was making the trial more difficult for everyone involved.
âIt is baffling to me that somebody with the number of years of experience that you have, time after time after time, continues to seemingly and purposefully hide the ball to the extent you possibly can, for as long as you possibly can,â Whitaker said. âI really donât want to believe that it is purposeful but honestly, after a certain number of times, you start to wonder how can it be anything but that.â
Weeks later, that same âhaphazardâ approach led to an incident that set the stage for Thugâs eventual release
During witness testimony on Oct. 23, prosecutors were questioning a witness named Wunnie Lee (aka Slimelife Shawty), a former defendant in the YSL case who signed a plea agreement in exchange for testifying.
While on the stand, prosecutors asked Lee to identify certain defendants by showing him social media posts. While reading one of the posts, Lee read aloud the hashtag #freequa â a reference to a previous prison sentence for Marquavius Huey (aka Qua), one of Thugâs current co-defendants.
That was a crucial error by prosecutors. The jury was not supposed to know which defendants had previously been incarcerated, and defense attorneys argued that the government was supposed to redact the post and prep Lee not to mention it. After the admission before jurors, defense attorneys quickly moved for a mistrial. âWeâre not going to be able to unring this bell,â one said.
The misstep quickly drew another sharp critique from Whitaker, who at one point told prosecutors that she was trying to find a way to âfix your sloppiness so that everybody wonât have wasted 10 to 12 months of their lives in this trial.â Though she refused to grant a mistrial that would permanently end the case, Whitaker warned that she might order that the massive trial be started over from scratch.
Faced with that disastrous prospect, prosecutors and defense attorneys quickly began talking about plea deals. Nobody wanted a mistrial: The DAâs office had already sunk years of taxpayer dollars into the costly case, and defendants had already sat in jail for years waiting for a verdict.
Days later, three of Young Thugâs co-defendants â Quamarvious Nichols, Marquavius âQuaâ Huey and Rodalius âLil Rodâ Ryan â all reached deals with prosecutors. Two others â Deamonte âYak Gottiâ Kendrick and Shannon Stillwell â who are facing some of the most serious accusations in the case, refused to do so.
Like the other defense attorneys, Thugâs attorneys (Steel and co-counsel Keith Adams) hunkered down with prosecutors over the week to negotiate a potential deal. But at a press conference Thursday, Adams said the DAâs office did not approach the talks in âgood faithâ and appeared to only be trying to âsave face.â Though they offered to let Thug escape the case with only 15 years probation and no prison time, Adams said they also insisted on onerous conditions in which Thug would affirm the stateâs accusations against him.
With a judge that had shown herself to be highly skeptical of the prosecutors trying the case, Steel said Thursday that Thug and his legal team made the âexcruciatingâ decision to plead guilty without a negotiated sentence â and to place their faith in Judge Whitaker for a lenient sentence.
âNegotiations totally broke down with the district attorneyâs office, horribly broke down,â Steel told reporters. âAt that point we believed that justice could be found with the honorable court. Jeffery just wanted to go home.â
The move was extremely risky. Prosecutors promptly told the judge that, in the absence of a negotiated plea deal, they were seeking a draconian sentence against Thug: a whopping 45 years, 25 of which would be served in prison and 20 more on probation.
After that, both Steel and Thug addressed the court, offering impassioned pleas for a light sentence. But before Whitaker handed down her sentence â just 15 years probation, allowing Thug to go home that day â she seemed most swayed by the conduct of the prosecutors themselves.
âIt is not lost on the court that the state ⌠was willing to entirely dismiss [several counts] and was willing to give a sentence that permitted Mr. Williams to walk out of the door today,â the judge said. â[The state] does not seem to be particularly worried that Mr. Williams, if on the streets, would be a danger to society.â
Following the sentence, Thug hugged his lawyers. By late Thursday evening, he had been released.

Ed Sheeranâs âThinking Out Loudâ did not infringe the copyright to Marvin Gayeâs âLetâs Get It On,â a federal appeals court ruled Friday (Nov. 1), saying the two songs share only âfundamental musical building blocksâ that cannot be owned by any single songwriter.
In a ruling issued more than a decade after Sheeranâs chart-topping hit was first released, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected an infringement lawsuit filed by Structured Asset Sales, a company that owns a small stake in the rights to Gayeâs song.
The case argued that Sheeranâs song copied a chord progression and rhythm from Gayeâs, but the appeals court said the lawsuit was essentially seeking âa monopoly over a combination of two fundamental musical building blocks.â
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âThe four-chord progression at issueâubiquitous in pop musicâeven coupled with a syncopated harmonic rhythm, is too well-explored to meet the originality threshold that copyright law demands,â a panel of appeals court judges wrote. âOverprotecting such basic elements would threaten to stifle creativity and undermine the purpose of copyright law.â
Looking at the two songs more broadly, the Second Circuit also ruled that Sheeranâs track was clearly not similar enough to Gayeâs to amount to copyright infringement: âNeither the melody nor the lyrics of âThinking Outâ Loud bears any resemblance to those in âLetâs Get It On.â Undeniable and obvious differences exist between them.â
Sheeran has faced multiple lawsuits over âThinking,â a 2014 track co-written with Amy Wadge that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ultimately spent 46 weeks on the chart. He was first sued by the daughter of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the famed 1973 tune with Gaye. That case ended in a high-profile trial last year, resulting in a jury verdict that cleared Sheeran of any wrongdoing.
The case decided on Friday is a separate lawsuit filed by SAS, an entity owned by industry executive David Pullman that controls a different one-third stake in Townsendâs copyrights â meaning a one-ninth stake in the rights to Gayeâs iconic track. In May, weeks after the big jury verdict, a federal judge tossed out the SAS lawsuit, ruling that it was seeking an âimpermissible monopoly over a basic musical building block.â
In upholding that decision on Friday, the Second Circuit echoed the earlier rulingâs concern about overprotecting copyrights and threatening future songwriting.
The chord progression and harmonic rhythm at issue in the case are âgarden varietyâ elements that had been used in numerous songs, the appeals court said, pointing to evidence that they had appeared in âGeorgy Girlâ by The Seekers and âSince I Lost My Babyâ by The Temptations â two tracks that predated Gayeâs song by years. The appeals court noted that there is a âlimited number of notes and chords availableâ and that âcommon themes frequently reappear.â
âIn the field of popular songs, many, if not most, compositions bear some similarity to prior songs,â the court wrote, quoting from a treatise on copyright law. âSo while a similar chord progression and harmonic rhythm may create a similar sound and feel, that is not enough.â
The ruling is a major victory for Sheeran, but the battle over âThinkingâ isnât quite over yet. SAS also has another lawsuit against Sheeran pending, advancing an unorthodox effort to cite a more expansive copyright covering the sound recording to âLetâs Get It Onâ rather than the written music. That case has been paused while the earlier lawsuit played out.
In a statement to Billboard following Fridayâs decision, SAS owner Pullman criticized the appeals court for citing âtwo songs out of over 60 million registered songsâ in its analysis. And he stressed that the decision had not addressed his companyâs arguments relying on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision about federal regulatory power.
Sheeranâs attorney, Donald Zakarin of the law firm Pryor Cashman, told Billboard that he and his clients were âgratifiedâ by the courtâs ruling: âThis ruling is consistent with the juryâs rejection of any claim of infringement in the [earlier] case, finding that Ed and Amy independently created âThinking Out Loud.’â
Legendary hip-hop producer Madlib has filed a lawsuit against his former manager Eothen âEgonâ Alapatt, alleging the executive abused his role to claim undue profits from Madlibâs music and merch companies, among other accusations.
In a complaint filed Thursday (Oct. 31) in Los Angeles court, attorneys for Madlib say Alapatt began managing Madlibâs business affairs around 2010 when the famed producer left his deal with Stones Throw Records â where Alapatt worked as an executive â in an effort to âown and control his music.â Around that time, the complaint alleges that Alapatt was fired from Stones Throw.
According to the lawsuit, Madlib trusted Alapatt to set up and manage two business entities (âMadicine Showâ for his music interests and âRapp Catsâ for his merchandise) in Madlibâs name, with profits from the businesses to be shared between the two parties. However, Madlib allegedly discovered only recently that Alapatt was not only failing to properly run those businesses but was âalso engaged in rank self-dealing, concealing information from and repeatedly breaching his duties to Madlib, and otherwise engaging in persistent and pervasive mismanagement.â
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The complaint further alleges Alapatt abused his position by taking âa fee off the topâ of all income generated by Madlibâs label, Madicine Show, and that he ârefused to account to Madlibâ about his compensation and failed to provide any written agreements to the producer. Madlibâs lawyers additionally claim that Alapatt refused to allow an audit of his own business, Now-Again â which they say Alapatt inserted under false pretenses as a go-between for Madicine Show and its distributor, Ingrooves â to ascertain what proceeds it earned from Madicine Show.
Elsewhere, the complaint alleges that Alapatt âdirected a single lawyer and single accountant to represent himâ as well as Madlib, Madicine Show, Rapp Cats and Now-Again without Madlibâs âinformed consentâ and then âdirected that lawyer and that accountant to refuse to cooperate with Madlibâ and the new professional team Madlib had assembled after his relationship with Alapatt went south.
The complaint states that Madlib only discovered the extent of Alapattâs alleged malfeasance in April 2023, when he finally managed, through âforensic accounting,â to learn more about the financials of Madicine Show and Rapp Cats during the period of 2018 to mid-2022. His lawyers claim this revealed âseveral accounting irregularitiesâ and âa lack of any backup documentationâ for several hundred thousand dollars in ââconsulting,â âcommissions,â âfeesâ or âreimbursements’â for Alapatt as well as a second named defendant, Jeffrey Carlson, a.k.a. Jeff Jank â an alleged associate of Alapattâs who formerly worked as an art director at Stones Throw and is described in the complaint as âa member of Rapp Cats.â
The complaint further claims that Alapatt took âtens of thousands of dollars for personal expensesâ from the two business entities, and that there was no documentation of employee payroll, inventory or artist royalty statements.
Alapatt also allegedly âcaptur[ed] half of Madlibâs producer royalties and advances for himselfâ while locking Madlib out of his Ingrooves, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube and Facebook accounts; the complaint also claims he locked Madlib out of the Instagram account for his trademarked alter-ego Quasimoto, a cartoon character that the producer used throughout his career for merchandise and music.
âMadlib has since demanded that Madicine Show and Rapp Cats be wound up and dissolved and that any contractual relationship with those entitiesâŚbe terminated,â the complaint reads. â[Alapatt] refuses to do so.â Instead, it claims, Alapatt told Madlib that heâs welcome to ââbuy him outâ of his interest in those entities or the underlying intellectual property.â
Thursdayâs lawsuit is the second lawsuit to be filed against Alapatt over the past year. Last October, the manager was also sued by the estate of Madlibâs late collaborator MF DOOM for allegedly stealing the rapperâs notebooks full of lyrics. In response to that suit, attorneys for Alapatt called the case âbaseless and libelous,â and characterized it as âthe continuation of a year-long smear campaign.â
Madlibâs team is seeking a jury trial and a judicially supervised wind-up and dissolution for Madicine Show and Rapp Cats, âto include a full and complete accounting of the assets and liabilities of the entities [and] a determination of any unauthorized remuneration,â among other requests. Madlib is also seeking damages from Alapatt and Now-Again.
Alapatt and his attorney did not immediately respond to Billboardâs requests for comment. Carlson also did not immediately return a request for comment.
Young Thug was sentenced to 15 years probation and no prison time after pleading guilty in the long-running criminal case accusing him of leading a violent Atlanta street gang, a stunning end to a legal saga that rocked the music industry.
After days of closed-door negotiations with Fulton County prosecutors, Thug (Jeffery Williams) refused Thursday (Oct. 31) to take a plea deal that would have sent him home immediately. Instead, he opted for a non-negotiated guilty plea, leaving his fate in the hands of Judge Paige Reese Whitaker.
The move paid off: Later on Thursday, Whitaker sentenced Thug to only 15 years probation with no time to be served in prison, meaning that he would be set free on Thursday after more than two years in custody. In doing so, she urged the Grammy-winning rapper to use his platform to set a good example for young people in the future.
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âI know youâre talented, and if you choose to continue to rap, you need to try to use your influence to let kids know that is not the way to go and that there are ways out of poverty besides hooking up with the powerful guy at the end of the street selling drugs,â Whitaker said.
Thugâs guilty plea marks a key turning point in a criminal case that has captivated the music industry for more than two years. Pitting prosecutors in Americaâs rap capital against one of hip-hopâs biggest stars, the YSL case has raised big questions â about the fairness of the criminal justice system; about violent personas in modern hip-hop; and about prosecutors using rap lyrics as evidence.
Standing before the judge at a tense hearing Thursday, Thug pleaded guilty to several counts, including possession of drugs and firearms, and pleaded no contest to several others, including the core racketeering accusations that alleged he was the leader of a criminal gang.
Without the negotiated plea deal, prosecutors recommended a far harsher sentence than they had offered: a whopping 45 years, with 25 served in prison and 20 years on probation. Thugâs attorney, Brian Steel, then offered an extended rebuttal to the stateâs claims and urged leniency. Finally, Thug himself spoke, saying he took âfull responsibility for my crimesâ and pleading with the judge to see that he has âa good heart.â
âI just hope that you find it in your heart to allow me to go home and be with my family and just do better as a person,â the artist told the judge.
After she handed down her sentence, the judge offered a quick warning to Thug before adjourning for the day: âGood luck to you. And there better be no violations, but if there are any, youâre coming back to see me.â
âYes, maâam,â Thug said back.
Thursdayâs guilty plea came days after the trial was thrown into chaos by botched testimony from a stateâs witness, sparking talk of a mistrial. Since then, prosecutors and defendants have struck a slew of deals rather than risk starting over from scratch in the trial, which has already stretched across 10 months of jury selection and 11 months of testimony to become the longest-ever in state history.
Thug, a chart-topping rapper and producer who helped shape the sound of hip-hop in the 2010s, was arrested in May 2022 along with dozens of others. In a sweeping indictment, prosecutors alleged that his âYSLâ â nominally a record label standing for âYoung Stoner Lifeâ â was also a violent gang called âYoung Slime Lifeâ that had wrought âhavocâ on the Atlanta area for nearly a decade.
The case, built around Georgiaâs Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, claimed that YSL had committed murders, carjackings, drug dealing and many other crimes. And prosecutors alleged that Thug was âKing Slime,â operating as a criminal boss amid his rise to fame. âIt does not matter what your notoriety is, what your fame is,â Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at the time. âWe are going to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.â
Thug strongly denied the accusations and has long maintained his innocence. On the opening day of the trial, his attorney Steel argued that despite a difficult local upbringing, Thug âdoesnât even know most of the people in this indictmentâ and had no reason to run a criminal organization.
From the start, the YSL case has been beset by delays. Starting in January 2023, it took an unprecedented 10-month process just to pick a jury. After the trial itself got underway in November 2023, prosecutors meandered through a vast list of witnesses that included a stunning 737 names. There was also a jailhouse stabbing of one defendant, as well as a bizarre episode over a secret meeting with a witness that resulted in the presiding judge being removed from the case.
While the slow-moving trial dragged on, Thug sat in jail for more than two years, repeatedly denied release on bond over fears that he might intimidate witnesses.
Though Thug is now going home, the YSL case is not over.
Attorneys for co-defendants Deamonte âYak Gottiâ Kendrick and Shannon Stillwell said their clients had refused plea deals on Thursday, meaning they will continue to face trial and move toward an eventual verdict. Kendrick and Stillwell stand accused of carrying out the 2015 murder of rival gang leader Donovan Thomas, a crime that figures prominently in the prosecutionâs case.