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Jay-Z is expanding his sports roster. The rapper and businessman’s Roc Nation Sports announced on social media on Monday (July 10) that it has landed a deal with Italy’s Series A soccer league. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The “strategic partnership” between the two aims to […]
Colombian star J Balvin has officially joined Roc Nation as a management client, where he will be overseen directly by Jay Brown and Chris Knight.
Balvin was previously managed by Fabio Acosta and Scooter Braun’s SB projects. He parted ways with the latter on June 30, 2022, after nearly three years together. He continued working with Acosta and his company, Akela Family Music, through March. Acosta had managed or co-managed Balvin in some capacity for the past decade. Sources say the two parted on amicable terms.
Balvin, one of the biggest Latin stars in the world, has had a series of management shifts over the past five years. In 2019, he parted ways with manager Rebeca León, who had managed him since the onset of his career in the United States, and signed with Braun. Throughout both deals, Acosta remained part of his management team and worked in partnership with SB Project, helping bring in groundbreaking deals and partnerships. These included his celebrity menu collaboration with McDonald’s — a first for a Latin act. Balvin was also the first Latin artist to collaborate with Nike and Michael Jordan on an Air Jordan collaboration, and in November of 2020, he performed in Fortnite, marking the first performance ever by a Latin act for a gaming company.
Last year, Balvin also briefly split with his longtime agency, WME, and went to UTA, after postponing his 25-date José tour. But after four months, he returned to WME.
Balvin is currently featured on the Fast X soundtrack with the track “Toretto.” He’s also announced a series of European tour dates, mostly festivals, beginning with a June 24 performance at the Solydays festival in Paris.
Balvin’s full touring schedule is below.
6/24 – Paris – Solydays 25th Anniversary Festival6/26 – Ibiza – Pacha Nightclub6/30 – Seville – Puro Latino Fest7/1 – Madrid – Puro Latino Fest7/3 – Ibiza – Pacha Nightclub7/8 – Liege, Belgium – Les Ardentes Festival7/9 – Constanta, Romania – Neversea Festival7/11 – Milan – Milano Latin Festival7/12 – Bern, Switzerland – Gurten Park7/14 – Tenerife – Ritmo del Mundo7/15 – Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal – Meo Mares Vivas Festival7/21 – Byron Bay, Australia – Splendour in the Grass7/23 – Melbourne – Margaret Court7/25 – Sydney – Hordern Pavillion
The latest battleground in Megan Thee Stallion’s war with her record label is a dispute over whether her manager – Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez – can be forced to sit for a deposition.
For months, the two sides have sparred over whether Perez must answer questions from lawyers for record label 1501 Certified Entertainment. They say she is “one of the most critical” witnesses in the ongoing case; Megan’s lawyers say they’re just trying to “harass” a busy executive who has little pertinent info.
In the latest filing on Tuesday, Megan’s attorneys said 1501’s arguments in the dispute are “entirely off base, bordering on nonsensical.” Perez doesn’t have any “unique or superior personal knowledge,” they said, and 1501’s lawyers should have sought such info from “alternative sources.”
The star rapper (real name Megan Pete) has been fighting with 1501 for more than two years, claiming the company duped a young artist into signing an “unconscionable” record deal in 2018 that was well-below industry standards. She says that when she signed a new management deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019, she got “real lawyers” who helped her see that the deal was “crazy.”
That core dispute has mushroomed into additional litigation, with both sides accusing the other of various forms of wrongdoing and claiming millions in damages. A judge ruled in December that the case will need to be decided by a jury trial; a date has not yet been set.
With both sides preparing to make their case, 1501 sought to have Perez sit for a deposition – meaning she would meet with the company’s lawyers and answer questions about Megan’s case under oath. But the rapper’s lawyers quickly threw a challenge flag in November, seeking a so-called protective order that would have shielded Perez from what they called “gamesmanship” by 1501.
They pointed to what’s known as the apex doctrine, which limits when high-ranking executives can be forced to give a deposition. (That’s the same rule that Spotify cited last year when it tried to shield CEO Daniel Ek from questioning in a copyright lawsuit.) Under the apex doctrine, busy top officials only need to testify when they have unique info that can’t be derived from other less burdensome sources.
“1501 does not seek relevant, admissible evidence because Perez does not have any,” Megan’s lawyers wrote in their November filing. “Rather, 1501 is intent on harassing Perez and disrupting her responsibilities as CEO of Roc Nation.”
The label quickly fired back in December, arguing that Perez had been “directly, personally, and substantially involved in the underlying facts of the lawsuit.” They claimed she’d had direct conversations about whether Megan’s 2021 Something for Thee Hotties counted as an “album” under her deal – a central dispute in the case. And they said Perez had personally negotiated one of Megan’s record contracts at issue in the lawsuit.
“Ms. Perez is trying to use her position at Roc Nation to prevent 1501 from obtaining otherwise discoverable information from her as a fact witness,” the label’s lawyers wrote. “1501 is not seeking discovery from Ms. Perez as CEO of Roc Nation. Rather, 1501 is seeking discovery from Ms. Perez as a fact witness.”
With Tuesday’s new filing from Megan’s lawyers, both sides have now fully made their arguments, and a judge will rule in the coming weeks or months on whether Perez must sit down with 1501’s lawyers. A rep for Megan and Roc Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on the deposition dispute.
Steve Zager, lead attorney for 1501, told Billboard his client was simply trying to obtain key information from an individual who was “intimately involved” in the events that led to litigation: “It is not harassment to try to serve a witness with knowledge of the facts of a case with a deposition subpoena where her lawyers have refused to accept service on her behalf.”
Read this week’s entire legal filing from Megan Thee Stallion’s lawyers here:
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Source: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Getty / Kodak Black
Another day, another rapper or celebrity sharing their head*ss opinion on Tory Lanez being found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion.
Legal expert and frequent court visitor Kodak Black is the latest person with something to say about Tory Lanez being found guilty on all charges.
Like the ridiculous petition started by “fans” and Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, and other family members, Black also stupidly believes that JAY-Z and Roc Nation have something to do with the trial’s outcome.
Kodak Black Thinks JAY-Z Is A “F*ck N*gga”
In an Instagram Live session, the rapper shared his unwanted opinion, chastising the victim in all of this, Megan Thee Stallion, for speaking on the matter while dissing the GOD MC, JAY-Z.
Via HipNMore:
Who advised this sh*t before Christmas? And Jay-Z standing behind this, you a f*ck n*gga homie,” Kodak said, dissing Jay-Z and believing the wild rumors that his company Roc Nation has a big role to play in the case. “And Meg, you supposed to be from the streets …. even it was a gunshot on your foot (and not pavement fragments) … I know a b*tch who got shot in the toe, too. I know a female who got shot in the toe. You don’t see her talking about sending n*ggas to jail.” He also called Tory a “good n*gga.”
“This shit aint right, homie. For real, bro,” Kodak continued. “And Tory Lanez a good nigga, bro…This shit fu**ing with my Christmas Eve. Everybody shit ain’t for me to speak on. But it’s like ni**as aint finna talk about that. Ni**as finna act like this shit ain’t never happen. I don’t know. I wasn’t in the courtroom. But at the same time, if it is some fu**ed up shit going on, ni**as ain’t gonna wanna say nothing because of the politics bullshit. And all of this Jay-Z shit. But I don’t like that shit nan bit.”
You can watch Kodak Black spew his stupidity below.
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Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Getty
