It's been a bad year for Cash Money Entertainment in terms of lawsuits but it looks like Bryan "Birdman" Williams and co. have finally gotten a court to side with them as the label beat associate Jas Prince regarding payments tied to Drake's career, according to The Jasmine Brand.
Jas, son of James Prince—the owner of Houston's Rap-A-Lot Records—claims to have been the first to discover Drake in his capacity as a rapper, which may or may not be true. He signed the Toronto rapper to his Aspire Music Group, before the emcee went to Young Money (under the Cash Money umbrella). That was a legitimate business deal, but Jas claims he was promised $5 million for his client, and only received $1 million.
Cash Money, which has been accused of shady business practices in the past, seems to have had all of its ducks in a row for this one. It claimed that there was no binding agreement between the label and Prince, and that Aspire was paid a percentage of the earnings Cash Money brought in from Drake. In other words, Birdman and co. had been paying Aspire as it was expected to, and they didn't owe Prince anything as an individual. Therefore a federal judge elected to throw the case out.
We'll see if this is the end of the story, however. Prince had already gotten his father involved with the lawsuit—James sent Birdman (and several others) an intimidating message regarding Drake a few months back—so we'll see if daddy gets involved again.
Cash Money may have been able to shake the $4 million lawsuit but they've already lost the case brought by former Hot Boys member Turk, on account of them not showing up. The rapper brought a $1.3 million suit alleging unpaid royalties and Birdman attempted to ignore it to death...which resulted in a judge declaring a motion of default, essentially a forfeit.
The fight of the century will occur later this year however, when Lil Wayne's $51 million lawsuit against his current employer hits the courtroom.
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