Like many rappers, Lil Wayne has made a lot of money boasting about how much money he’s made. Now he’s getting sued for failing to “make it rain” on his producers.
The diminutive braggadocio has scaled the heights of hip-hop with such hits as “Got Money.” But this critical darling (the New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones has compared Wayne’s “raspy, pixillated croak” to Bob Dylan’s iconic “whine”) is being asked to spread the wealth.
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Production team Play-N-Skillz has filed suit against Wayne in New York, seeking $1m in royalties for the single “Got Money” off his triple platinum album Tha Carter III. “We haven’t gotten any compensation,” said Skillz in a 2009 interview while the duo was still trying to negotiate with Weezy. “We’re more thankful for the opportunity to be on Tha Carter III, but business is business at the end of the day.”
The “Got Money” suit comes on the heels of other legal action: producer David Kirkwood recently filed for $1.5m in unpaid royalties from Lil Wayne’s labels Young Money and Cash Money Records. Cash Money has also been hit by a copyright claim alleging that rapper Birdman pinched a Funkadelic track sample for his 2006 song “Army Gunz.”
Meanwhile, Weezy has delayed the release of his next album Tha Carter IV until 29 August. “He’s still perfecting a few things… changing a few lines,” said Cash Money president Mack Maine. Maybe he should also change the name of his record label. Just a thought.