Black Sheep sues UMG for $750 million in unpaid royalties

Black Sheep filed a legal battle against Universal Music Group.

The 1990s hip-hop duo of Andres “Dres” Vargas Titus and William “Mista Lawnge” McLean are spearheading a large class action lawsuit over unpaid royalties.according to signboard, Plaintiffs allege that UMG entered into a “sweetheart” deal with Spotify in 2008, agreeing to accept a low royalty rate in exchange for cash and shares in the streaming service.

The complaint, filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, alleges that UMG did not disclose details of the transaction and counted only cash when distributing the royalty payments. Black Sheep claims that the company has held stakes for its own sake, withholding “hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties” owed to thousands of artists.

Black Sheep says UMG’s deal with Spotify violated a 1990 deal with Polygram, which merged with UMG in 1998. According to the lawsuit, the deal required UMG to pay his 50% of all net income related to the exploitation of Black Sheep’s output. The music company failed to meet its contractual obligations and allegedly defrauded the artist of her $750 million in Spotify stock.

“Instead of distributing 50% of Spotify’s stock to artists or paying them true and accurate royalties, for years Universal has shortchanged artists and has been accused by plaintiffs and class members of Universal of …over time, the value of Spotify shares improperly deducted from artists by Universal ballooned into the hundreds of millions of dollars,” the lawsuit said. reads. “By these and other misconduct detailed herein, the company violated its agreements with artists, violated the promises of good faith and fair dealing implied in those agreements, and An unfair advantage was obtained at the expense of the artist.”