(Jan. 29, 2020 – Source: Getty Images North America)
*Megan Thee Stallion’s record label has responded to the lawsuit she filed this week, claiming 1501 Certified Entertainment and its CEO, ex-baseball player Carl Crawford, refuse to let her release new music after she asked to renegotiate her contract.
Crawford slammed her allegations in an eye-opening new interview with Rolling Stone, in which he calls Megan “fake” and a “liar,” and claims their professional relationship was good until JAY-Z entered the pictured and got in Megan’s head; essentially turning her against the folks responsible for her success.
Megan signed to the Houston-based indie label in 2018, but claims she was too young at the time to comprehend her contract. In an Instagram Live over the weekend, she explained to fans that when she signed with JAY-Z’s Roc Nation for management, their lawyers noted that she pretty much signed a crappy contract with 1501.
“I wasn’t upset [with 1501], because I was thinking, ‘everybody cool, we all family, it’s cool, it’s nice…let me just ask [them] to renegotiate my contract’” she explained. “As soon as I asked them to renegotiate my contract, everything went left.”
However, Crawford tells Billboard that her tale is all bullcrap.
“Let’s talk about your contract. It’s a great contract for a first-timer,” he offers. “What contract gives parts of their masters and 40% royalties and all that kind of stuff? Ask Jay-Z to pull one of his artists’ first contracts, and let’s compare it to what Megan got… I guarantee they won’t ever show you that.”
Billboard spoke to Crawford about Megan’s allegations and why he thinks Roc Nation is trying to “stronghold” his company. Check out excerpts below.
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Megan Thee Stallion Sues Record Label Amid Contract Dispute; Judge Grants Restraining Order [VIDEO]
Spoke to 1501 Certified Entertainment CEO Carl Crawford about Megan Thee Stallion’s lawsuit and allegations about his label not wanting her to release new music. In this in-depth interview, he calls out Megan for being “a fraud” and “a liar.” Check it outhttps://t.co/3lkZYroLrB
— Carl Anthony Lamarre (@TheRealCL24) March 3, 2020
What was your initial reaction with Megan going on Instagram Live and accusing your label of preventing her from dropping new music?
My initial reaction was, “Man, I can’t believe this is serious.” She just has so many holes in her story, and it’s almost on some delusional type stuff. The bubble of Hollywood and her eight million followers has really clouded her head, because the stuff that she’s saying is not true. It’s a whole lie. Nothing is true that she said. Me being greedy and taking money from her, that’s crazy. I never tried to take nothing from her. The only thing we ever did was give, give, give. Now, she fell for the oldest trick in the industry: the conquer and divide theme.
Everybody in the industry knows this is what Jay-Z and Roc Nation do: They come in, the find the smallest things wrong with the problem — because there weren’t any problems before she left — and then she says that I didn’t want to negotiate? Ok, tell everybody your definition of negotiating. Your definition is, “OK. I’m going to send Suge Knight’s old lawyers to come in, and it’s a stick-up…'” Of course, I’m like, “This isn’t a negotiation. This is a robbery.”
They want to make it look like I’m greedy? No, they’re trying to keep me out of everything. She keeps saying, ‘Them n—as over there negotiated my contract.’ Them n—as are sitting right next to her. T. Farris is the one. Her mom did the contract. I’m new to the business. I let this guy T. Farris run my whole business, because I knew absolutely nothing about it. Zero. So he wrote your contract up. I didn’t do it.
They want to make a big deal about it. We signed a deal. Honor your contract and let’s just keep doing business how we been doing and everything is fine. Nobody is trying to rob you.
When Megan announced her management deal with Roc Nation, from my understanding, you found out of the news the same time as everyone else, correct?
The guy T. Farris — the one who was helping me with my business — he was handling Megan for me. She’s a girl, so he was used to being a road manager. I was letting him handle all the business, and he said, ‘We’re going to Roc Nation. We got a meeting.’ I said, ‘Oh cool. We gon’ get to meet Jay-Z.’ I’m actually excited because I get to go meet Jay-Z myself. You know, we looked up to this man.
I said, “What’s going on?” He said, “Ain’t no big deal. He just finna show us around the building. Little small s–t.” I’m like, “Cool. Do I need to be there?” He was like, “Nah. You know it ain’t that serious.” I said, “Well, OK. Cool.” I don’t go because we were just on tour with her. Me and Megan are perfectly fine at this moment. Next thing you know, I’m on a plane and I’m thinking the whole industry is going to try to take Megan from me, not my homeboy.
So I go and link up with J. [Prince, Rap-A-Lot CEO]. Next thing you know, the picture is posted up on the Internet and everybody is like, “Oh, you bitter”‘ No, I was already posting J [Prince] before. When I found out like everybody else, I got emotional and made one comment. They took that and ran with it like, “Oh, he’s bitter, he’s mad'” Look, I’m just trying to see what’s up. I thought they had enough respect for me to at least tell me something. But it’s cool. She don’t have to tell me about that. That’s fine.
But at the end of the day, tell them what their real plan was. Their real plan was to get you out of my contract so they can sign you to Roc Nation. That’s all they want to do. We gave this girl a 60-40 split. Now go ask the artist about that. She got parts of her masters [the] first time. You think Jay-Z would have gave her part of her masters on her first deal with Roc Nation? F–k no. Then, she’s getting $100,000 a show and she don’t want to pay up. That’s what the issue was about. She signed with Roc Nation in August and decided she didn’t wanna pay me no more.
They’re using that as a strong-arm tactic so that I can renegotiate the contract. They’re holding the money, and they haven’t paid me since August. She done over 15 shows. Y’all do the math. She gets $100,000 a show. She owe me, and I haven’t recouped almost $2 million that we spent on her, building her up so that Roc Nation would wanna come [around]. Where was Roc Nation at when we was grinding and riding around on them backstreets? Roc Nation was nowhere to be found.
Soon as we spent our money, blow it up, now all of a sudden, these strangers and people you just met — they introduce you to Beyoncé and now we the devil? We were just the angels sent from the sky. Now, we’re the devil just because Jay-Z saved you. You’re so fake.
Let’s run through the numbers that Megan is claiming in her lawsuit against 1501. She says that 1501 gets 60% of her recording income.
Right, and she gets the 40%.
But she’s claiming that chunks of the 40% is being given to third party people like producers, mixers, featured artists, etc. Is that true?
Nah, I don’t think that’s true either… It’s a great deal. She wants to talk about a bad deal — she’s disrespecting her mother by saying that, because her mother and T. Farris are the ones who did it. Those two worked out the deal with the lawyer. I didn’t even have nothing to do with it.
And you guys supposedly get 30% of all her touring money and 30% of all her merch, as well?
Well, we did a 360 deal where it was a 70-30. The reason why it was a 70-30 was because we gave up so much. We gave up part of her masters right now, we gave her a 60-40 split. That’s why we got so much on that side. We knew we did some stuff that people don’t do.
This is how I was getting in the business. This is how I got her to sign with us — because I wanted to make sure we overdo it, that way we can get her. So she got a great deal. She’s just over there with Roc Nation, and she’s mad because somebody said something bad about her one time. She acting like people can’t speak their truth — like she’s the only one that have a truth. If you watch her in her interviews, she looks like a little kid that’s just being silly. It’s like she’s not even taking it serious. Look at it. Everybody knows. She looks so silly telling everybody I didn’t do nothing here in Houston, TX when we sat here and watched it from day one. She’s such a fraud.
The rest of the world can get mad at me, but they’re not in Houston. They don’t know how it started. They just call me bitter, but put it this way to your little 8 million followers that don’t give a f–k about me anyway, if somebody comes and tries to take your s–t, you gonna fight back too. It wasn’t no renegotiation, it was take this or else. That’s why the beef started.
Read the full interview here.
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