Black Sheep Suing UMG for $750 Million Over Unpaid Royalties
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Classic Rap Duo Black Sheep Spearheads A $750 Million Class Action Lawsuit Against Universal Music Over Spotify Royalties
Three-quarters of a billion dollars are on the line in a new class-action lawsuit filed against Universal Music Group, according to Rolling Stone. The suit is spearheaded by classic rap duo Black Sheep, who are best-known for their 1991 hit “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited).” The duo was also part of the Native Tongues collective which included A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and Queen Latifah.
Their lawsuit alleges Universal Music Group accepted both cash and company stock from Spotify in exchange for its labels’ music, but only paid royalties to its artists from the cash received from Spotify, cutting artists out of more than $750 million in royalties. Black Sheep argues that this violates the original terms of their 1990s contract with Polygram (since folded into the UMG umbrella), under which the label would have paid 50 percent of all net receipts from Black Sheep’s music.
The suit claims, “In the mid-2000s, Universal struck an undisclosed, sweetheart deal with Spotify whereby Universal agreed to accept substantially lower royalty payments on artists’ behalf in exchange for equity stake in Spotify – then a fledgling streaming service. Yet rather than distribute to artists their 50 percent of Spotify stock or pay artists their true and accurate royalty payments, for years Universal shortchanged artists and deprived plaintiffs and class members of the full royalty payments they were owed under Universal’s contract. For approximately a decade, Universal omitted from the royalty statements Universal issued to plaintiffs that it had received Spotify stock in connection with the ‘use or exploitation’ of Black Sheep recordings.”
According to the documents filed in Manhattan federal court, Universal valued its stake in Spotify at around $1.7 billion as of September 2021, with “substantial portion” of that coming from the above-mentioned deal. Since Universal could have withheld royalties from “thousands of artists” that have been signed to UMG’s subsisdiaries over the years, Black Sheep says they don’t know the “exact size” of the lawsuit’s possible class but that certification is forthcoming and that Universal’s records can reveal more information once subpoenaed.
The implications of this lawsuit could be massive, as streaming royalties have been at the center of numerous controversies at DSPs like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal for years.
Black Sheep Files $750Mil Lawsuit Against UMG Over Unpaid Royalties: Report
Usually, it’s good to hear about iconic Rap groups, but Black Sheep isn’t surfacing for a walk down Hip Hop’s memory lane. Instead, the classic duo—which includes Andres “Dres” Vargas Titus and William “Mista Lawnge” McLean—is reportedly suing Universal Music Group. According to a report by Rolling Stone, the pair have filed a $750 million class action lawsuit against UMG over unpaid royalties.
Black Sheep claims that UMG worked out a deal with Spotify that shortchanged artists in the long run. Universal is accused of exchanging music from artists for cash and Spotify stock.
Read More: Universal Music Sued Over Royalty Payouts For Kanye West’s “Power”
The rappers also allege they weren’t advised of this side deal; thus, it violates their contract with UMG’s subsidiary, Polygram.
“In the mid-2000s, Universal struck an undisclosed, sweetheart deal with Spotify,” the lawsuit reportedly reads. “Universal agreed to accept substantially lower royalty payments on artists’ behalf in exchange for equity stake in Spotify – then a fledgling streaming service.”
“Yet rather than distribute to artists their 50 percent of Spotify stock or pay artists their true and accurate royalty payments, for years Universal shortchanged artists and deprived plaintiffs and class members of the full royalty payments they were owed under Universal’s contract.”
Read More: Universal Music Group Pulls Catalog From TikTok Rival Triller
Following Rolling Stone‘s report, a UMG spokesperson denied Black Sheep’s claims.
“Universal Music Group’s innovative leadership has led to the renewed growth of the music ecosystem to the benefit of recording artists, songwriters and creators around the world,” they said.
“UMG has a well-established track record of fighting for artist compensation and the claim that it would take equity at the expense of artist compensation is patently false and absurd. Given that this is pending litigation, we cannot comment on all aspects of the complaint.”
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Spotify’s New ‘Playlist In A Bottle’ Feature Invites Users To Make Musical Time Capsules
Spotify Wrapped filled everyone’s social media feeds at the end of November, shortly following the popularity of the Instafest app that turned a user’s listening history into a festival lineup. Now, Spotify is introducing a new feature for music lovers to play around with: Playlist In A Bottle.
Playlist In A Bottle invites users to make playlists that will be locked until January 2024 — a sonic time capsule. It’s only available until the end of this month, so it’s time to get curating. Users will also be given choices of time capsules, such as a bottle, a jean pocket, a gumball machine, a lunch box, a teddy bear, and an acorn. Prompts will help the user pick songs, including a song you’d pay to hear for the first time again, a song you want to hear live this year, a song that won’t make any sense a year from now, and more. The feature is live on the Spotify app now.
The Instafest app was so successful last year that the realistic nature of the fake festival flyers fooled many fans on Twitter into thinking they were real. “Found out these musical festivals are just generated by oomfs spotifys why I looked up how to buy tickets….” one user wrote in a viral tweet.
Kendrick Lamar Dominated Spotify’s Rap Streams In 2022
Last year, many of the biggest artists in the industry blessed the Hip-Hop community with amazing projects. From J.I.D.’s The Forever Story to Pusha T’s It’s Almost Dry, fans were eating all throughout 2022. However, one album has been in every single “album of the year” debate: Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
Obviously, K. Dot’s latest full-length topped HNHH’s ranking of the top 40 Hip-Hop albums of 2022. In addition to HNHH, Complex highlighted Mr. Morale as the album of the year. Furthermore, Billboard, Guardian, and NME also featured the record in the top five spots of their year-end rankings. Needless to say, Kendrick’s most recent project has received a lot of love from critics. Now, new data shows that fans liked it just as much as music journalists did.
READ MORE: Kendrick Lamar Almost Deep-Faked Eminem On “The Heart Part V”
Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers performed exceptionally on Spotify
As Jay-Z rapped on The Blueprint 3’s “Reminder,” “Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.”
Thus, although fans can debate critics’ reviews of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, they cannot refute the album’s streaming performance. According to a recent update from Chart Data, Kendrick Lamar’s latest record has performed exceptionally well on Spotify. In fact, the source for music industry statistics has confirmed that Mr. Morale garnered more streams than any other rap album last year.
“.@kendricklamar’s ‘Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers’ was the #1 most streamed rap album of 2022 on Spotify,” Chart Data tweeted on January 1, 2023.
Read MORE: Kendrick Lamar Explains Why He Stays Off Social Media
Alas, this will likely not be the last accolade that Kendrick’s latest body of work receives. Next month, K. Dot will be competing in eight categories at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Naturally, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is up for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album. More surprisingly, “The Heart Part 5” nabbed five nominations all on its own, including Song and Record of the Year, Best Music Video, and Best Rap Song and Performance. Lastly, the Blxst and Amanda Reifer-assisted Mr. Morale album cut “Die Hard” will compete for Best Melodic Rap Performance.
Keep it locked to HNHH for more updates on Kendrick Lamar and his lauded fifth studio album.
De La Soul’s Music Catalog Is Coming to Streaming Services in 2023
De La Soul’s First Six Albums Finally Have A Release Date For When They’ll Be On Streaming Services
After years of legal battles with their former record label Tommy Boy, iconic rap trio De La Soul’s catalog is finally coming to streaming services.
The Long Island natives took to Twitter to share that to mark the 34th anniversary of the release of De La Soul’s N0. 1 debut album, 3 Feet High And Rising, their catalog will be uploaded to streaming platforms on Friday, March 3.
Alexa, what’s the magic number. Full catalog release 3.3.2023 #delasoul @amazonmusic pic.twitter.com/657U845cwf
— De La Soul (@WeAreDeLaSoul) January 3, 2023
The members (emcees Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo) are relieved that they were able to strike a deal with Reservoir Media after they acquired Tommy Boy. “We can’t believe this day is finally here, and we are excited to be able to share our music with fans, old and new. Golnar, Rell, Faith, and the Reservoir team have been great partners in this entire process. We’re grateful that our relationship with them all has enabled this to happen,” the group said.
Although their music will be available across platforms, Spotify was the first streamer to share the news with their subscribers, tweeting a promotional video announcing the catalog will be accessible on its platform.
https://twitter.com/Spotify/status/1610274066044424192/video/1
Reservoir Media, excited about the news, released a statement, “[we are] pleased to share that De La Soul’s first six albums, ‘3 Feet High and Rising’ (1989), ‘De La Soul Is Dead’ (1991), ‘Buhloone Mindstate’ (1993), ‘Stakes Is High’ (1996), ‘Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump’ (2000), and ‘AOI: Bionix’ (2001), will be available to fans everywhere.”
Spotify Has A New Most-Streamed Song Of All Time, Ending Ed Sheeran’s No. 1 Run Of Over Five Years
The top ranks of Spotify’s most-streamed songs of all time don’t change too often. The last time we got a new song at No. 1 was in September 2017, when Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” passed Drake’s “One Dance” to become the new champion. Sheeran’s hit had about 1.3 billion plays at the time and since then, it became the first song to pass 2 and 3 billion streams on the platform.
Meanwhile, The Weeknd released “Blinding Lights” in November 2019 and it has been making its way up the list since then. Now, it has found the very top: On the evening of December 31, 2022, Chart Data noted that “Blinding Lights” had passed “Shape Of You” to become the most-streamed song in Spotify history. As of this morning (January 2), “Blinding Lights” has 3,332,163,962 streams and “Shape Of You” has 3,332,016,196.
.@theweeknd‘s “Blinding Lights” is now the #1 most streamed song in Spotify history, surpassing @edsheeran‘s “Shape of You” (3.332 billion).
— chart data (@chartdata) December 31, 2022
As for other songs that perhaps have a shot at someday taking over No. 1, Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” is the most-played 2020 song with about 2.2 billion streams, The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” is the top 2021 hit with 2.3 billion, and Harry Styles’ “As It Was” is currently the only 2022 song in the all-time top 100, with 1.7 billion.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The Weeknd Celebrates As “Blinding Lights” Becomes Spotify’s Most Streamed Song
The Weeknd’s hit song, “Blinding Lights,” has reportedly become the most-streamed song on Spotify of all time. The Toronto singer celebrated the news on Twitter on New Year’s Eve.
“FOR NEW YEARS ???,” The Weeknd wrote, before following up, “happy new years to blinding lights. the most streamed song of all time tonight.”
The Weeknd first shared “Blinding Lights” back on November 29, 2019, as the second single from his fourth studio album, After Hours. The track debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 but went on to spend four weeks at the top spot. It eventually became the first song to hold a spot in the top 10 on the chart for an entire year.
According to Spotify’s Daily Global chart, the song has passed Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” by 918K filtered streams. Sheeran discussed the possibility of “Blinding Lights” passing his song on The Breakfast Club, earlier this year.
“‘Blinding Lights’ is about to take over ‘Shape of You’ as the most-streamed song of all time. And I don’t think that that debuted at #1. I think it debuted at like 11 or 12. And then it grew, and now it’s the biggest song of all time,” Sheeran said at the time.
In addition to “Blinding Lights,” The Weeknd also ended 2022 as Spotify’s most-streamed artist of the year. He dropped his latest album, Dawn FM, back in January. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 148,000 album-equivalent units. It was supported by the singles, “Take My Breath”, “Sacrifice”, “Out of Time” and “Less than Zero.”
Check out The Weeknd’s celebration on Twitter below.
FOR NEW YEARS ???
https://t.co/Gk6vgDMfOG
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) December 31, 2022
“Her Loss” Surpasses One Billion Streams On Spotify
It seems as though Drake breaks records after every new release. The world is continuing to stream his latest offering, last month’s 21 Savage-assisted album, Her Loss.
As a result, the project has just recently hit a milestone mark.
On Monday (December 26), Spotify announced that the 16-track album has officially reached one billion streams and counting. Of course, this is just on their streaming platform and doesn’t count the plays from elsewhere.
Along with the astronomical number of streams, Drizzy simultaneously breaks another record. He becomes the artist with the most albums with over one billion streams to their name, as Her Loss marks his twelfth to do so. His first album of 2022, Honestly, Nevermind, cracked the milestone earlier this year.
The project unsurprisingly debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, selling 411,000 units in its first week.
In other news surrounding the 6 God, he’s certainly been attending his fair share of Toronto Raptors games this year. As the team’s global ambassador, the 36-year-old is often spotted court-side at Scotiabank Arena in his signature seat. More times than not, he brings along his 5-year-old son, Adonis.
Just last night, the father and son duo were seen taking in some basketball action as the Raptors faced off against the Los Angeles Clippers. After the game, the Clippers posted a clip of Drizzy dapping up former Raptors Normal Powell and Kawhi Leonard. “Kawhi and Norm with a fan,” the franchise wrote in the Instagram caption.
Evidently, Champagne Papi didn’t the Clippers calling him a fan. “Win a ring,” he subsequently fired back in the comments.
Is Her Loss still in your rotation? Comment your favorite song from the project down below. As always, make sure to stay tuned to HNHH for the latest music and pop culture updates.