Lil Wayne isn’t the one to forget anything when it comes to his money. With a judgment still pending over the $51 million against Birdman and Cash Money, Mr. Carter has his eyes set on Universal Music Group and SoundExchange — “an independent nonprofit collective management organization that collects and distributes digital performance royalties to featured artists and copyright holders.” Weezy claims that he has been short-changed millions from his discovery and development of artists Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Tyga. Back in 2003, UMG and Cash Money Records agreed to $100 million deal, which a bulk of that was distributed as an advance to Birdman and his partners. However, Wayne believes that UMG has been diverting millions of dollars of his profits to repay themselves since they gave CMR that hefty advance.
“With Universal’s knowledge of Lil Wayne’s rights to partial ownership and profits from those artists, Universal and Cash Money entered into a series of agreements which, among other things, diverted Lil Wayne’s substantial profits to repay debts of Cash Money,” states the complaint. “As a result, 100% of the profits that should have been paid to Lil Wayne as a result of his ownership of Drake, Nicki Minaj and Tyga records have been seized by Universal to repay debts that were neither incurred by nor were the obligations of Lil Wayne.”
In the original agreement he claims it states the label’s profits would be divided 51%-49% between Cash Money and Weezy.
“Universal should be grateful and respectful to Lil Wayne for the millions of dollars in distribution fees and profits they have earned on the artists he brought to the company, instead of seizing all of his profits on those artists in a desperate attempt to recoup the tens of millions of dollars they are owed by Cash Money Records,” said Carter’s attorney Howard E. King of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano in a Monday statement.