Legal News
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Legendary hip-hop producer Madlib has filed a lawsuit against his former manager Eothen “Egon” Alapatt, alleging the executive abused his role to claim undue profits from Madlib’s 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 Madlib’s business affairs around 2010 when the famed producer left his deal with Stones Throw Records — where Alapatt worked as an executive — in an effort to “own and control his music.” 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 (“Madicine Show” for his music interests and “Rapp Cats” for his merchandise) in Madlib’s 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 “also engaged in rank self-dealing, concealing information from and repeatedly breaching his duties to Madlib, and otherwise engaging in persistent and pervasive mismanagement.”
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The complaint further alleges Alapatt abused his position by taking “a fee off the top” of all income generated by Madlib’s label, Madicine Show, and that he “refused to account to Madlib” about his compensation and failed to provide any written agreements to the producer. Madlib’s lawyers additionally claim that Alapatt refused to allow an audit of his own business, Now-Again — which they say Alapatt inserted under false pretenses as a go-between for Madicine Show and its distributor, Ingrooves — to ascertain what proceeds it earned from Madicine Show.
Elsewhere, the complaint alleges that Alapatt “directed a single lawyer and single accountant to represent him” as well as Madlib, Madicine Show, Rapp Cats and Now-Again without Madlib’s “informed consent” and then “directed that lawyer and that accountant to refuse to cooperate with Madlib” 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 Alapatt’s alleged malfeasance in April 2023, when he finally managed, through “forensic accounting,” 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 “several accounting irregularities” and “a lack of any backup documentation” for several hundred thousand dollars in “‘consulting,’ ‘commissions,’ ‘fees’ or ‘reimbursements’” for Alapatt as well as a second named defendant, Jeffrey Carlson, a.k.a. Jeff Jank — an alleged associate of Alapatt’s who formerly worked as an art director at Stones Throw and is described in the complaint as “a member of Rapp Cats.”
The complaint further claims that Alapatt took “tens of thousands of dollars for personal expenses” from the two business entities, and that there was no documentation of employee payroll, inventory or artist royalty statements.
Alapatt also allegedly “captur[ed] half of Madlib’s producer royalties and advances for himself” 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.
“Madlib has since demanded that Madicine Show and Rapp Cats be wound up and dissolved and that any contractual relationship with those entities…be terminated,” the complaint reads. “[Alapatt] refuses to do so.” Instead, it claims, Alapatt told Madlib that he’s welcome to “‘buy him out’ of his interest in those entities or the underlying intellectual property.”
Thursday’s 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 Madlib’s late collaborator MF DOOM for allegedly stealing the rapper’s notebooks full of lyrics. In response to that suit, attorneys for Alapatt called the case “baseless and libelous,” and characterized it as “the continuation of a year-long smear campaign.”
Madlib’s team is seeking a jury trial and a judicially supervised wind-up and dissolution for Madicine Show and Rapp Cats, “to include a full and complete accounting of the assets and liabilities of the entities [and] a determination of any unauthorized remuneration,” among other requests. Madlib is also seeking damages from Alapatt and Now-Again.
Alapatt and his attorney did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s 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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“I know you’re 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,” Whitaker said.
Thug’s 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 America’s rap capital against one of hip-hop’s biggest stars, the YSL case has raised big questions — 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. Thug’s attorney, Brian Steel, then offered an extended rebuttal to the state’s claims and urged leniency. Finally, Thug himself spoke, saying he took “full responsibility for my crimes” and pleading with the judge to see that he has “a good heart.”
“I 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,” the artist told the judge.
After she handed down her sentence, the judge offered a quick warning to Thug before adjourning for the day: “Good luck to you. And there better be no violations, but if there are any, you’re coming back to see me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Thug said back.
Thursday’s guilty plea came days after the trial was thrown into chaos by botched testimony from a state’s 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 “YSL” — nominally a record label standing for “Young Stoner Life” — was also a violent gang called “Young Slime Life” that had wrought “havoc” on the Atlanta area for nearly a decade.
The case, built around Georgia’s 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 “King Slime,” operating as a criminal boss amid his rise to fame. “It does not matter what your notoriety is, what your fame is,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at the time. “We are going to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”
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 “doesn’t even know most of the people in this indictment” 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 “Yak Gotti” 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 prosecution’s case.
A federal appeals court says Live Nation and Ticketmaster must face a class action claiming they charged “extraordinarily high” prices to thousands of ticket buyers, ruling that the concert giants cannot enforce “opaque and unfair” user agreements to scuttle the lawsuit.
Live Nation claimed fans had waived their right to sue in court when they bought their tickets, arguing they had signed agreements promising to litigate any legal disputes via private arbitration — a common requirement when purchasing event tickets and other services from many companies.
But in a ruling Monday (Oct. 28), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Live Nation’s agreements were “unconscionable and unenforceable” since they would make it “impossible” for fans to fairly pursue claims against the company.
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“Forced to accept terms that can be changed without notice, a plaintiff then must arbitrate under … opaque and unfair rules,” the appeals court wrote. “The rules and the terms are so overly harsh or one-sided as to unequivocally represent a systematic effort to impose arbitration as an inferior forum.”
The ruling described Live Nation’s agreements in scathing terms, calling them “so dense, convoluted and internally contradictory to be borderline unintelligible” and “poorly drafted and riddled with typos.” The terms were so confusing, the court said, that Live Nation’s own attorneys “struggled to explain the rules” during a court hearing.
A spokesperson for Live Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday (Oct. 31).
The ruling came as Live Nation is facing a sweeping antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice, seeking to break up the company over allegations that it illegally maintained a monopoly in the live entertainment industry. That separate action, which could take years to resolve, remains pending.
The class action against Live Nation, filed in 2022, accuses the company of violating antitrust laws by monopolizing the market for concert tickets and engaging in “predatory” behavior. Filed on behalf of “hundreds of thousands if not millions” of ticket buyers, the case claims Live Nation and Ticketmaster abused their dominance to charge “extraordinarily high” prices to consumers.
The lawsuit was something of a sequel to an earlier class action, in which the same legal team (from the law firm Quinn Emanuel) made highly-similar claims against Live Nation. That earlier case was dismissed after a federal judge ruled that such accusations must be handled via private litigation because of agreements that the plaintiffs had signed when they purchased their tickets.
In Monday’s ruling, the Ninth Circuit said that earlier victory had been both a gift and a curse for Live Nation. Though it had allowed the company to avoid a class-action lawsuit, the ruling raised the troubling prospect of facing thousands of individual arbitration cases all at once.
“Defendants foresaw that if their motion to compel [arbitration] in that case were granted, they would be faced with a large number of parallel individual claims by ticket purchasers,” the appeals court wrote. “In anticipation of such claims, defendants sought to gain in arbitration some of the advantages of class-wide litigation while suffering few of its disadvantages.”
According to the ruling, doing so involved amending its terms of use to require fans to submit to “novel and unusual” procedures for “mass arbitration” offered by a new arbitration company called New Era ADR.
It was this new arbitration agreement that the appeals court declared unenforceable in Monday’s ruling. The court roundly criticized the rules, saying they had placed unfair terms on any consumers who wanted to litigate a dispute with Live Nation. And, citing the company’s market share, the court said fans had almost no choice but to sign the agreement.
“Because Ticketmaster is the exclusive ticket seller for almost all live concerts in large venues, prospective ticket buyers in most instances are faced with a choice,” the court wrote. “They can either use Ticketmaster’s website and accept its terms, or refuse to use the website and be entirely foreclosed from purchasing tickets on the primary market.”
The infamous 2016 surveillance video showing Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulting his former girlfriend wasn’t illegally leaked to the media by prosecutors, government attorneys argue in a new filing that accuses the rapper’s lawyers of trying to “suppress a damning piece of evidence.”
In a motion filed late Wednesday, federal prosecutors responded to leaking accusations made by Combs’ lawyers earlier this month. They say it was impossible that they had leaked the video of Combs striking Cassie Venture to CNN because they didn’t even have it at the time it was published in May.
The government says Diddy’s attorneys know that, but that they’re using the leak accusations as a way to prevent jurors from seeing Combs “brutally physically assaulting a victim” — a crucial piece of evidence.
“Without any factual basis, the leak motion seeks to suppress highly probative evidence … by claiming that it was grand jury material leaked by government agents,” prosecutors write. “But, as the defendant is fully aware, the video was not in the Government’s possession at the time of CNN’s publication and the Government has never, at any point, obtained the video through grand jury process.”
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 on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking over what the government says was a sprawling criminal operation aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” If convicted on all the charges, he faces potential life prison sentence.
Wednesday’s new filing came three weeks after Combs’ attorneys demanded an investigation into the alleged leaks, claiming they had “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.”
Diddy’s attorneys pointed specifically to the Cassie video, which showed Combs striking his then-girlfriend in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 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.”
Wednesday’s filing from prosecutors also addressed Diddy’s recent demand that the government reveal the names of his alleged sexual abuse victims. In a motion earlier this month, his lawyers arguing he cannot fairly defend himself without knowing their identities.
In the response, the government argued that such disclosures “poses serious risks” to the safety of the victims, citing Diddy’s “significant history of violence and obstruction” that resulted in him being denied release on bail last month.
“Due to the defendant’s history, the Government has serious concerns about victim safety and the possibly of witness tampering if a list of victim names were provided to the defendant,” prosecutors wrote.
A woman who has accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of rape cannot proceed with her lawsuit under a “Jane Doe” pseudonym, a Manhattan federal judge says – a ruling that could potentially impact the many other cases filed against him by anonymous accusers.
In a decision Wednesday, Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ruled that the privacy rights of Combs’ alleged victim did not trump the right of all defendants “to defend themselves” in open court against such “heinous” allegations.
“Plaintiff’s interest in avoiding public scrutiny, or even embarrassment, does not outweigh the interests of both Combs and the public in the customary and constitutionally-embedded presumption of openness in judicial proceedings,” the judge wrote.
“Plaintiff has chosen to bring this lawsuit, leveling serious charges against Combs and, as such, she has put her credibility in issue,” the judge added. “Combs is, therefore, entitled to investigate her background and challenge her allegations and her credibility.”
The ruling came in one of at least 15 lawsuits brought against Combs in recent weeks by Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, all of which have been filed under “Doe” pseudonyms. Though Vyskocil’s ruling is not binding on other judges, it could influence how they handle the issue in Buzbee’s other cases, as well as numerous other lawsuits that have been filed anonymously against Combs.
Buzbee did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday morning.
Combs has faced a flood of abuse accusations over the past year, starting with civil lawsuits and followed by a bombshell federal indictment last month in which prosecutors allege he ran a sprawling criminal operation for years aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” If convicted on the charges, which include sex trafficking and racketeering, he faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
In the current case – filed last week by one of the 120 alleged victims that Buzbee claims to represent – the accuser alleges that Comb raped her and threatened her life in 2004 when she was 19 years old.
The case was filed under the Jane Doe pseudonym without prior approval from the judge — a common tactic in such lawsuits but one that Vyskocil ruled Wednesday was technically a violation of federal litigation rules.
In her decision, the judge said anonymous lawsuits are supposed to be the exception rather than the rule – both because American court cases are supposed to be open to the public, and because accused defendants have a right to know who is accusing them of wrongdoing.
Buzbee had argued that abuse accusers can face backlash after filing such cases, and that other accusers might be scared away from speaking out if forced to reveal their identities. Though Vyskocil acknowledged the “toll” that such public scrutiny can take, she repeatedly pointed to the “fundamental unfairness” of allowing only one side to remain anonymous.
“Plaintiff, who is an adult, has now decided to file a lawsuit in which she accuses a famous person of engaging in heinous conduct approximately twenty years ago and, further, accuses a number of businesses of complicity in that alleged conduct,” the judge wrote. “Defendants have a right to defend themselves, including by investigating Plaintiff, and the people have a right to know who is using their courts.”
Two more of Young Thug’s co-defendants are taking plea deals in the long-running Atlanta racketeering case against the rapper’s alleged YSL gang, leaving Thug facing trial with just two other defendants.
A week after improper testimony from a state’s witness threw the trial into chaos and sparked talk of a mistrial, prosecutors and defense attorneys continued to show a willingness Wednesday (Oct. 30) to strike deals rather than risk starting the massive trial over from scratch.
At the hearing, Marquavius “Qua” Huey pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, robbery and several other counts, with prosecutors agreeing to drop a slew of others. Under the deal, Huey received a sentence of 25 years, but with just nine to be served in prison — a sharp decrease from the life sentences he was facing if convicted on all the charges.
Another defendant, Rodalius “Lil Rod” Ryan, pled guilty to a single racketeering conspiracy charge and was sentenced to 10 years, which was commuted to time served since he is already serving a life sentence for a 2019 murder.
The two new pleas came a day after Quamarvious Nichols agreed to plead guilty to a single racketeering charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping all other charges against him, including murder and illegal firearms possession. Under the deal, Nichols was sentenced to 20 years, but will only serve seven in prison and the rest on probation.
The flurry of deals follows an incident last week in which a government witness accidentally revealed sensitive information to the jury, prompting defense attorneys to demand a mistrial. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, who chided prosecutors for “sloppiness” and has repeatedly criticized their handling of the case, said she would consider such a ruling.
Since then, testimony has been halted as prosecutors and defense attorneys have negotiated plea deals behind closed doors. Both sides seem willing to consider compromise rather than a costly redo of the trial, which has stretched across 10 months of jury selection and 11 months of testimony to become the longest-ever in state history.
Whether Thug himself, a Grammy-winning superstar who prosecutors claim was the leader of the gang, will also reach such a deal remains to be seen. The trial is scheduled to resume on Thursday morning (Oct. 31).
Thug was indicted in May 2022 along with dozens of others over allegations that his “YSL” group was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life” but rather a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life.” The case, built around Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, claims the group committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
The pleas struck Tuesday (Oct. 29) and Wednesday mean that Thug (Jeffery Williams) is now facing the remainder of the trial with just two other defendants, Deamonte “Yak Gotti” Kendrick and Shannon Stillwell. Kendrick and Stillwell stand accused of carrying out the 2015 murder of rival gang leader Donovan Thomas, a crime that figures prominently in the prosecution’s case.
Superstar producer Metro Boomin is facing a civil lawsuit over allegations that he raped and impregnated a woman in 2016, then referenced the incident in one of his songs.
In a complaint filed Tuesday (Oct. 29) in Los Angeles court, attorneys for Vanessa LeMaistre say she blacked out after ingesting a Xanax and a shot of alcohol in his recording studio during the September 2016 session, then awoke to find herself being sexually assaulted by Metro (Leland Wayne).
“The next thing Ms. LeMaistre can recall is waking up on a bed in a different location with Wayne raping her and being completely unable to move or make a sound,” her lawyers write. “At no point during this encounter was Ms. LeMaistre able to consent to any sexual activity, and Wayne’s conduct without question constituted rape and sexual assault.”
In a response statement, Metro Boomin’s attorney Lawrence Hinkle II called the lawsuit “a pure shakedown” against his client: “These are false accusations. Mr. Wayne refused to pay her months ago, and he refuses to pay her now. Mr. Wayne will defend himself in court. He will file a claim for malicious prosecution once he prevails.”
The lawsuit claims Metro exploited the death of LeMaistre’s infant son to gain her trust, and that she believed they had “bonded over the ability of music to help people in their darkest moments.” But it says that belief was “shattered” after he invited her to the studio for the September 2016 session.
“Meeting Wayne resulted in Ms. LeMaistre suffering from the second worst thing that ever happened to her — being raped by someone who pretended to be her friend for months,” her lawyers write. “Ms. LeMaistre is still working to put herself back together after experiencing such an extraordinary amount of trauma at the hands of Wayne — someone she truly believed to be her friend but turned out to be her worst nightmare.”
Weeks after the alleged assault, LeMaistre says she learned she was pregnant. She says she did not have sex with anyone else other than Metro and that the pregnancy was the result of the alleged rape. Due to the “recent loss of her son and the traumatic cause of her pregnancy,” her lawyers say she could not continue the pregnancy and had an abortion in November 2016.
Notably, the lawsuit claims the alleged attack is referenced in the 2017 song “Rap Saved Me,” released by 21 Savage, Offset and Metro on their collaborative studio album Without Warning. The lyrics in question are: “She took a Xanny, then she fainted/ I’m from the gutter, ain’t no changing/ From the gutter, rap saved me/ She drive me crazy, have my baby.”
“The lyrics were horrifying for Ms. LeMaistre to hear over and over again, as they recounted the situation that happened to her and caused further trauma,” her lawyers write.
LeMaistre is represented by lawyers from Wigdor, the same law firm that filed a high-profile civil lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs last year on behalf of his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura — a case that was then followed by a flood of other allegations and eventual federal criminal charges.
In a statement, the Wigdor attorneys referenced the alleged connection between the lyrics to “Rap Saved Me” and LeMaistre’s accusations.
“Metro Boomin has built a successful career with lyrics and social media that are not only offensive but also explicitly outline his intentions to harm women,” the firm wrote in a joint statement with LeMaistre’s co-counsel from the law firm Gerard Bengali. “These are more than mere words, and it’s time for him to be held accountable for his manipulative tactics and unacceptable behavior.”
Read the entire lawsuit against Metro here:
Megan Thee Stallion is suing a YouTuber and social media personality who she claims is a “mouthpiece and puppet” for Tory Lanez, accusing the woman of “churning out falsehoods” about the criminal case stemming from Lanez shooting her.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, attorneys for the rapper (Megan Pete) accused Milagro Gramz (Milagro Elizabeth Cooper) of carrying out a public campaign to “denigrate, belittle, insult, and spread false statements” about her.
That allegedly included Gramz sharing a pornographic “deepfake” depicting the rapper – a move that Megan’s lawyers say violate a Florida statute banning “altered sexual depictions” of real people.
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“Enough is enough,” writes Megan’s attorneys at the law firm Quinn Emanuel. “Ms. Pete—a victim of violent crime and champion of women’s rights to her millions of fans worldwide—will no longer stand for defendant’s campaign of harassment.”
The lawsuit also accused Gramz of cyberstalking, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy.
In a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), Gramz acknowledged the lawsuit, saying she had “been informed that I’m being sued by Alex Spiro on behalf of his client Megan Thee Stallion.” After quoting from a threat letter, she said: “Of course we’ll chat about it. They threw in the tape too.”
The new case came days after a high-profile false story about Megan and Lanez – claiming incorrectly that an appeals court had declared “innocent” in the shooting — circulated on social media. Spiro, Megan’s long time attorney, warned yesterday that he was planning legal action over such “nonsense.”
Lanez (Daystar Peterson) was convicted in December 2022 on three felony counts over the violent 2020 incident, in which he shot at the feet of Megan during an argument following a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house in the Hollywood Hills. In August 2023, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He has filed an appeal, which remains pending.
In the new lawsuit, Megan’s attorneys say Gramz repeatedly spread falsehoods about the case, including questioning whether she was even shot and claiming she was “caught trying to deceive the courts.” More recently, they say Gramz has pushed the “outlandish claim” that the gun used in the shooting had gone missing.
“Defendant Cooper’s statements recklessly disregarded the truth and suggested that the firearm was never presented in court because it had allegedly disappeared. It has not,” Megan’s lawyers write. “The firearm remains in the custody of the Los Angeles Police Department.”
As for the deepfake video, the lawsuit does not accuse Gramz of directly creating or posting the video, but claims that she “encouraged her followers” to watch it, including by pointing users to a post that had directly shared the video.
“Defendant Cooper willfully and maliciously promoted the Deepfake Video without Ms. Pete’s consent,” Megan’s lawyers write.
Tekashi 6ix9ine (Daniel Hernandez) was arrested Tuesday (Oct. 29) over allegations that he violated the terms of a parole agreement struck with prosecutors after the rapper agreed to testify against his former Brooklyn gangmates.
The rapper was arraigned in Manhattan federal court Tuesday over alleged violations of his supervised release, which is set to expire in April 2025. According to court records, Tekashi pleaded not guilty to the new violations and was ordered to remain in custody until his next court date.
In a statement to Billboard, Tekashi’s attorney Lance Lazzaro said his client had been “charged with three technical violations regarding his supervised release” and that he was “confident that each specification will be dismissed.”
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Tekashi was originally charged in 2018 with federal racketeering and murder conspiracy charges over his involvement with a New York City street gang called Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods. He then famously flipped on the gang and provided bombshell testimony in return for a plea deal, which saw him sentenced to just two years in prison and five years of supervised release.
At Tuesday’s hearing, prosecutors argued that Tekashi had violated his release conditions by traveling to Las Vegas without permission, failing to submit for drug testing and testing positive for methamphetamine, according to Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press.
The hearing featured arguments from Lazzaro that the failed drug test was from the use of prescribed Adderall, according to Josh Russell of Courthouse News — but the judge was apparently unswayed, citing a “broader pattern” of misconduct during parole that he said suggests a “full spectrum disregard for the law.”
Tekashi’s next court date is an evidentiary hearing set for Nov. 12.
Once a rising star in the world of hip-hop and social media, Tekashi was charged in November 2018 alongside several other members of Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, who prosecutors claimed “wreaked havoc on New York City” by “engaging in brazen acts of violence.”
But just a day after being arrested, Hernandez 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 gangmates.
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 prison sentence was set to run until July 2020, but Hernandez was released early, in April 2020, after his attorneys argued that the COVID-19 pandemic posed an increased risk to him because he suffers from asthma.
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: Lil Durk faces federal murder-for-hire charges over allegedly ordering his associates to kill a rival rapper; Megan Thee Stallion’s lawyer threatens legal action over false reports about Tory Lanez being declared “innocent”; Ye and Adidas reach a settlement to resolve legal disputes over the end of their Yeezy partnership; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Lil Durk Charged With Murder For Hire Plot
Two years after the rapper Quando Rondo was ambushed by gunmen at a Los Angeles gas station, federal prosecutors charged Chicago drill star Lil Durk with ordering the attack ––an assault they say was retribution for the 2020 killing of rising star King Von.
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The Chicago rapper (real name Durk Devontay Banks) was arrested as he attempted to flee the country on a private jet, hours after several of his Only the Family associates were indicted on similar charges over their alleged involvement in the attack, which left Rondo unscathed but saw his cousin killed in the crossfire.
Much like the ongoing case in Atlanta against Young Thug and his YSL group, prosecutors say Only The Family was not merely a well-publicized group of Chicago rappers, but a “hybrid organization” that also functioned as a criminal gang to carry out violent acts “at the direction” of Durk.
“Mr. Banks is charged with orchestrating a cold-blooded murder that resulted in the death of a rival’s family member,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “Violent gun crime of this sort is devastating to our community and we will have zero-tolerance for those who perpetrate such callous acts of violence.”
For more, go read our full story here, which includes access to the actual charging documents unveiled against Durk.
Other top stories…
FAKE NEWS DEBUNKED – False claims circulated on social media over the weekend that a California appeals court had declared Tory Lanez “innocent” in the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion. That’s not at all what actually happened, and now Megan’s attorney is threatening legal action over the “nonsense” that went viral: “They’re going to face consequences.”
DIDDY SUED YET AGAIN – Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with two new civil abuse lawsuits, including one that accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in a New York City hotel room in 2005. The second case accused the hip-hop mogul of similarly assaulting a 17-year-old would-be contestant on the reality television series Making the Band in 2008. Combs is currently in jail awaiting trial on sweeping federal criminal charges over decades of alleged sexual abuse.
CHAOS IN YSL CASE – Young Thug’s long-running Atlanta gang trial was once again thrown into chaos after a state’s witness accidentally revealed sensitive information to the jury — a mistake the judge quickly attributed to “sloppiness” from prosecutors. The move left the judge contemplating whether to declare a mistrial and sparked plea deal negotiations between the government and the defendants. It’s only the latest delay in a criminal trial that has stretched across 10 months of jury selection and 11 months of testimony to become the longest-ever in state history.
YEEZY SETTLEMENT – Adidas reached a settlement with Ye (formerly Kanye West) to resolve all outstanding legal claims stemming from the company’s decision to end its partnership with the rapper and his Yeezy brand. The deal came two years after Adidas terminated its lucrative partnership with the rapper over his antisemitic statements and erratic behavior.
DEPOSITION DRAMA – The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino must sit for a deposition in the ongoing litigation over the 2021 disaster at the Astroworld music festival, rejecting Live Nation’s argument that the exec wasn’t closely involved in festival operations. Victims’ lawyers cited an email Rapino sent the night of the disaster ordering another employee to wait for more info before canceling the rest of the festival: “If 5 died we would cancel,” he wrote in the message.
WHAT’S IN A NAME? Beyoncé’s attorneys once again asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register her daughter’s name as a trademark, more than 12 years after she and Jay-Z first sought to lock up the intellectual property rights “Blue Ivy Carter.” In the latest filing, they pushed back on concerns that consumers might confuse Blue Ivy’s name with another Blue Ivy: a single-store clothing boutique in Wisconsin that has used the name since before the young Carter was born.