Legal
The Legal Beat: Megan Thee Stallion’s Deposition Dispute – Plus Journey, Flo Rida & More
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings, and all the fun stuff in between. This week: A judge says Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez must sit for a deposition in Megan Thee Stallion’s war with her record company, a member of Journey sues his longtime bandmate over allegations of lavish spending, Flo Rida wins an $82 million verdict against a beverage company, and much more. THE BIG STORY: To Depose Or Not To Depose When should a top executive be hauled into a deposition to answer questions in a lawsuit? It’s a difficult question. Make it too hard and you could insulate powerful people from the legal process; make it too easy and attorneys could use it as a form of gamesmanship in case...
No Will, No Music: Nío García’s Career Restarts After Settlement With Flow La Movie’s Estate
It’s been a little over a year since the Dec. 15, 2021 plane crash that killed Puerto Rican producer Flow La Movie along with his partner Debbie Von Marie Jimenez García and their children, aged 21, 18 and four. Born José Angel Hernández, Flow La Movie was 38 at the time of the crash and is survived by a daughter, Keigelyan Hernandez. He also left behind a catalog of hit recordings released under his indie label, AH Entertainment, including the star-studded “Te Boté,” which topped Hot Latin Songs for 14 weeks, and the entire catalog of rapper Nio García, including “AM” and viral hit “La Jeepeta.” Those songs, along with García’s recording contract, have been ensnarled in a complex legal battle that has prevented García –at the cusp of his career– from releasing any further materi...
Is Bassnectar Staging a Direct-to-Fans Comeback?
After three years of silence and in the midst of an ongoing legal battle, Bassnectar (real name Lorin Ashton), appears to be staging a comeback. On Tuesday evening, a new mix was uploaded to the Bassnectar Mixcloud account, with the producer’s official Instagram account wiped clean around the same time. Most significantly, however, is a new website, UnlockTheOtherSide.com, which went live around the same time and features the signature Bassnectar logo. Fans discovered the site — the landing page for which was live but password protected on Tuesday evening but is currently offline — with copy describing it as “the new home for the Bassnectar universe & beyond,” according to screenshots reviewed by Billboard. Access for a membership to the site, according to additional screenshots, ...
‘Uptown Funk’ at Heart of New Royalties Lawsuit Against BMG
BMG Rights Management is facing a new lawsuit claiming the publisher has failed to pay royalties from Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars‘ smash hit “Uptown Funk” to the families of late members of the Gap Band who are credited as co-writers on the song. In a complaint filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the heirs of Robert and Ronnie Wilson claim that BMG breached a 2015 deal that was inked because “Uptown Funk” incorporated elements of the Gap Band’s 1979 song “I Don’t Believe You Want to Get Up and Dance (Oops Upside Your Head).” “Despite its obligations to account for and pay to plaintiffs their share of all income received from the Uptown Funk musical composition, BMG has refused and failed to provide either the funds due to plaintiffs or an accounting despite plaintiffs’ repeated deman...
Harry Styles Sues Over Fake Merch On the Internet, Says He Must Protect ‘Unknowing’ Fans
Harry Styles is on the legal offensive to combat fake merch on the internet. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Chicago federal court, the pop star sued a number of online sellers for allegedly violating his intellectual property rights by selling counterfeit merchandise to unsuspecting Harry fans. Arguing that the counterfeiters use misleading tactics to make it “difficult for consumers to distinguish such stores from an authorized retailer,” attorneys for Styles want a judge to issue a sweeping court order that would, among other things, force big web platforms like Amazon and Etsy (who are not named as defendants) to immediately shut down the listings. “Plaintiff is forced to file this action to combat defendants’ counterfeiting of its registered trademarks, as well as to protect unknowing c...
Final Chapters of ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Claim Singer Forced Aaliyah’s Family to Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement Following Annulment
The final two installments of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly docuseries series ended with a pair of bombshell revelations about the imprisoned singer’s controversial marriage to a then-underage Aaliyah. The two episodes that debuted on Monday and Tuesday, focused in on Kelly’s 2022 federal trial, which included allegations that the singer and his team allegedly forced Aaliyah’s family to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the wake of the annulment of the performers’ brief marriage. Kelly and Aaliyah were married in secret in August 1994 when the “Rock the Boat” singer was just 15, even though their marriage certificate listed her age as 18; the marriage was reportedly annulled by Aaliyah’s parents in Feb. 1995. Interviews with some of Kelly’s and Aaliyah’s entourages revealed some of the de...
Another Woman Files Sex Abuse Lawsuit Against Bill Cosby, NBC
A woman who alleges Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1986 sued the comedian-actor, NBCUniversal and other companies Friday (Dec. 30) in New York, where five other women filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month. Stacey Pinkerton says she was a 21-year-old flight attendant and model that year when she claims Cosby drugged her at a restaurant in Illinois and took her back to a hotel room in Chicago. The lawsuit alleges Cosby “engaged in forced sexual intercourse” with her while she was incapacitated from the drugs. The lawsuit comes more than a year after Cosby left prison after his 2018 sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania was overturned. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who said Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she...
Tory Lanez Found Guilty on All Counts in Megan Thee Stallion Shooting Trial
Rapper Tory Lanez has been found guilty on all three counts in the closely-watched trial over whether he shot Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, ending a nearly two-week trial over the July 2020 incident and setting the stage for a potentially lengthy prison sentence. The verdict was handed down by a jury in Los Angeles court on Friday (Dec. 23). Lanez was convicted on all counts: assault with a semiautomatic firearm; carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. He faces up to 22 years in prison. Upon the reading of the verdict, Lanez’s father, who was present in the gallery, began screaming. “This wicked system. Shame of all of you!” he cried out. In the course of the trial, Lanez’s defense team made their best effort to sow doubt ov...
Megan Thee Stallion Shooting Eyewitness Offers Confusing Testimony, Pegs Both Tory Lanez and Megan’s Ex-Friend as Shooter
Sean Kelly, an alleged eye witness to the 2020 incident in which Megan Thee Stallion was shot, offered confusing and contradictory testimony Tuesday (Dec. 20) about what really happened, saying he never actually saw a gun — but also that he saw a man matching Tory Lanez’s description holding one, and that Megan’s former friend and assistant Kelsey Harris may also have fired. During the seventh day of the blockbuster trial, Kelly (a key witness for Lanez’s defense team) testified that when he first looked outside his home on the night of the incident, he saw Megan and Harris kicking and punching each other outside of a vehicle. “They were pulling their hair and hitting each other. It was quite violent,” he told Lanez’s attorney George Mgdesyan. Shortly after a man matching the description o...
Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty of Rape in L.A. Trial as Jury Reveals Mixed Verdict
Harvey Weinstein on Monday (Dec. 19) was found guilty of rape in a Los Angeles trial. The conviction further cements his plunge from one of the most influential producers in Hollywood to the face of the #MeToo movement. But the jury acquitted Weinstein of sexual battery by restraint against a different Jane Doe accuser. Jurors also couldn’t reach a decision on three sexual assault charges, including rape. This trial centered on testimony from four women, all known as Jane Does in court, who accused Weinstein of raping or sexually assaulting them from 2004 to 2013. Four others also testified that they were assaulted, though their claims didn’t lead to charges. In total, prosecutors called 44 witnesses to the stand to make their case against the former movie mogul. Weinstein faced two c...
Megan Thee Stallion Trial Bombshell: Ex-Friend Claims Tory Lanez Shot Rapper, Offered $1M Bribe in Recorded Interview
In a bombshell recorded interview played in open court on Friday (Dec. 16), Kelsey Harris, Megan Thee Stallion‘s former friend and assistant, claimed several times that she saw Tory Lanez shoot the “Savage” rapper and then bribed her and Harris to keep quiet — contradicting her in-court testimony on Wednesday and Thursday. Judge David Herriford allowed prosecutors to play the entire 80-minute recording in front of the jury on day five of the blockbuster trial, in which Lanez is charged, among other things, with shooting Megan in the foot on July 12, 2020. The interview — clips from which were previously played in court during Harris’ two-day stint on the witness stand — was conducted on Sept. 14, 2022, in the presence of Deputy District Attorneys Kathy Ta and Alexander Bott, senior investi...
Megan Thee Stallion’s Ex-Assistant Denies Tory Lanez Threatened or Bribed Her on Day 4 of Trial
Kelsey Harris, Megan Thee Stallion‘s former friend and assistant, returned to court Thursday (Dec. 15) to complete her testimony on the fourth day of the high-profile trial over whether Tory Lanez shot Megan in the foot on July 12, 2020 — and like on Wednesday, the witness raised the ire of attorneys on both sides of the case with incomplete and often contradictory testimony. During Harris’ previous turn on the stand on Wednesday, Megan’s former friend and assistant failed to recall much of a September 2022 interview she did with Deputy District Attorneys Kathy Ta and Alexander Bott and another investigator. Ultimately, she testified that parts of that interview, during which she gave a detailed account of what happened the night of the shooting more than two years prior, “weren’...
