Sophia Michaels
Megan Thee Stallion shook the internet this past weekend with claims that her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, was barred from releasing any music after she requested to renegotiate her contract. Many have come to the defense of Megan while others have not been as sympathetic toward the rapper, saying the situation stems from her not fully reading her contract, something she admitted in her Instagram Live video.
Not long after receiving a temporary court order that directed her label to “do nothing to prevent the release, distribution, and sale of Pete’s new records,” 1501’s CEO, Carl Crawford, spoke on Megan Thee Stallion’s claims with Billboard. Beginning the interview, Crawford labeled all of Megan’s claims as fallacious.
“It’s a whole lie. Nothing is true that she said. Me being greedy and taking money from her, that’s crazy,” he said. “I never tried to take nothing from her. The only thing we ever did was give, give, give.”
He then claimed that Roc Nation created a problem that did not exist. “They come in, the[n] 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.”
Crawford then explained that the negotiation that Megan spoke of in her Instagram video was far from a true negotiation.
“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,’” he said.
Crawford later dove into the contract with the Houston rapper, which stands as a 60/40 split with 1501 getting the majority of revenue, one that he feels is much better than contracts most new acts receive. “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*ck no.”
Crawford said that he has not been paid since August and that Megan and Roc Nation are using “a strong-arm tactic so that I can renegotiate the contract” and avoid paying Crawford the money he is owed.
“They’re holding the money, and they haven’t paid me since August. She done over 15 shows. Y’all do the math,” he said. “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].”
Crawford would also speak on the contract’s specifics, why he believes her mother’s death has contributed to the issue, and the last time he spoke to Megan.
[via Billboard]
Written by: Uproxx
