Lil Wayne sues Universal Music Group for $40 million in unpaid profits.

Lil Wayne sues Universal Music
Group for $40 million in unpaid
profits
Lil Wayne has filed a lawsuit against Universal
Music Group for allegedly withholding tens of
millions of dollars in royalties for artists that
Wayne discovered.

In the lawsuit, the rapper — born Dwayne Carter
Jr. — accuses UMG of diverting his profits to
repay itself "more than $100 million" it advanced
to Cash Money Records, a subsidiary of
Universal Music Group.

Lil Wayne's Young Money Records is a joint
venture with Universal's Cash Money Records.

 In the 2003 agreement, according to the lawsuit,
the parties agreed that Young Money profits and
property would be divided between Cash Money
and Lil Wayne, with Cash Money receiving 51
percent and Lil Wayne receiving 49 percent.

But according to the lawsuit, the rapper never
saw profits for "discovering, developing, and
nurturing" artists like Drake, Nicki Minaj and
Tyga.

"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," the suit alleges.

"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."

The rapper seeks at least $40 million in
damages and profits.

Lil Wayne is also suing SoundExchange,
a performance rights organization that collects
and distributes royalties on the behalf of artists.
In a statement to Mashable, a UMG
spokesperson said his claims were "entirely
without merit."

"It should be no surprise that we learned of the
lawyer’s complaint through the news media. We
don’t intend to dignify this with further public
comment except to say that we will vigorously
contest it and that the merits of our case will
carry the day.”

A representative for SoundExchange did not
respond to Mashable 's request for comment.
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