Hip Hop fans rejoice, Lil Wayne is finally free
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, the rapper’s ongoing legal battle with Baby, aka Birdman, and Cash Money Records is over.
Emerging victorious in the longstanding dispute that has stopped him from releasing music since 2014, Lil Wayne is reportedly now $10 million richer and can finally release his highly anticipated album Tha Carter V.
Lil Wayne’s attorney Ron Sweeney, of Sweeney, Johnson & Sweeney LLC, confirmed the news that the rapper has in fact reached a settlement with Cash Money Records, but shied away from the exact details but stated that his “client is happy” and now owns his rights again.
“Per our settlement agreement, the matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of all parties,” Sweeney said. “In terms of the particulars, we’re prohibited legally from saying anything further. I can say that my client is happy. He is his own man, a man that owns his assets, his music and himself. At some point, Wayne will let his fans know what’s going to happen next.”
Universal reportedly settled the suit by paying out $10 million to Wayne and that none of the money came from Birdman.
Happy with their decision to pay out the money in order to dead the legal dispute between Wayne and Baby, which has left Hip Hop fans with no new Lil Wayne music for the past four years, Universal will reportedly recoup the profits from Drake and Nicki Minaj who are both Cash Money/Universal artists – they were also a big part of what Wayne was suing over.
It’s also being reported that part of the deal is that Lil Wayne is now officially off of Cash Money Records, which means he is now free to release his Tha Carter V album, and it will be released by Universal.
So what was Wayne suing for?
The first was Wayne and Young Money’s breach of contract suit against Cash Money, Birdman and his brother Ronald “Slim” Williams, UMG Recordings, Inc., and Universal Music Group, Inc. First filed back in May 2015, a notice for dismissal was filed May 23rd 2018.
The second suit was against Universal Music Group, Inc. and SoundExchange, Inc., originally filed in March 2016. Seeking at least $40 million in damages, Wayne claimed that Universal had withheld profits he’d earned from Young Money (an imprint of Cash Money Records) artists such as Drake, Nicki Minaj and Tyga, who he’s discovered and whose careers he nurtured. The notice of dismissal filed on May 25 doesn’t indicate a monetary settlement, just each side agreeing to “bear its own costs and attorneys’ fees.”
If all of this is true (we’ve been duped before) then it’s great news not only for Wayne, who has obviously been having a time of it and at times probably wasn’t sure he’d ever see the light at the end of the tunnel, but for Hip Hop fans as well.
Let’s get back to listening to the Wayne we all know and love and hopefully he and Birdman can rekindle their relationship, after all they are family.
