Earlier this year, Megan Thee Stallion sued her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment. Despite having a very successful career to date, the Houston rapper had previously expressed discontent with her record deal after hiring Roc Nation management.
According to Megan, there were a number of terms in the contract that she felt gave 1501 profits from her music the company didn’t deserve — including from such peripheral revenue streams as merch and touring. Things came to a head in March when Megan filed her lawsuit, asking a court to rule that her 2021 release, Something For Thee Hotties, had fulfilled the terms of her contract. In short, she wants to be released from 1501 ASAP.
However, 1501 countersued, arguing that Something For Thee Hotties should not count as an album, because it was not made up of all original material. Meg says that shouldn’t matter because it fulfills the length requirements set forth in the contract and should count as her fourth album, satisfying the five-album term of the contract. Even without it, she feels the recently released Traumazine would also count. After Traumazine‘s release, Megan amended her lawsuit, adding a request for $1 million from 1501, saying that the label hadn’t given her all the royalties she was owed for the albums she created in her time there.
On Twitter, Megan defended her lawsuit reasoning, asserting that her success was self-made and that 1501 did not have as great a hand in her career as its founder, Carl Crawford, has said. If the two sides can’t come to an agreement — which doesn’t seem likely, considering this dispute has been going on since 2020 — it’ll likely come down to a judge to determine whether Megan gets off 1501, 1501 gets a cut of Meg’s merch profits, or Meg gets $1 million from 1501.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.