This is The Legal Beat, a weekly music law newsletter from Billboard Pro, bringing you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, landmark decisions and all the fun stuff in between. This week: Shaboozey enters a bitter legal battle with his former record label. Beyoncé and the Foo Fighters are moving to stop Donald Trump from using their songs. another lawsuit breaks out over control of the Ramones. and many more.
THE BIG STORY: Shaboozey's Looming “Bar” Race.
Amidst the massive success of Shaboozey's 'A Bar Song (Tipsy)', a fierce legal battle is brewing in Los Angeles Superior Court.
On Wednesday (August 21), the famous country star (born Collins Obinna Chibueze) filed a lawsuit against music publisher Warner Chappell and his former record label, Kreshendo Entertainment, accusing them of breach of contract. Two days later, Kreshendo immediately sued him, accusing him of a “fraud and misrepresentation strategy.”
The disagreement? The extent to which Shaboozey is still bound by a deal he signed with Kreshendo in 2016 when he was a relatively unknown artist. Both sides agree that the deal ended in 2019, but are at odds over Shaboozey's ongoing obligations to his old label. And Warner has been on the ropes because it manages his publishing rights, which play a key role in the controversy.
The legal battle begins just as “A Bar Song” has emerged as one of the biggest hits of 2024. A genre-blending hit that interpolates J-KWON's 2004 rap hit “Tipsy” into a bouncy pop country track, the track has spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the year's longest stint at the top.
In his lawsuit, Kreshendo says it was this sudden success that sparked the legal battle: “Shaboozey has had no problem with any of these terms for years. It was only after he recently released 'Bar Song,' which became a huge hit, that he suddenly took issue with the terms he had expressly agreed to.”
We'll keep you updated as the dispute progresses through court…
Other top stories this week…
FAMILY FUED – A California appeals court issued a final ruling allowing Michael Jackson's estate to proceed with a $600 million sale of the singer's catalog to Sony Music, rejecting objections by his mother Kathryn Jackson that sought to block the deal. He had argued that the agreement “violated Michael's wishes”, but the court ruled that the superstar's will gives his executors (John Branca and John McClain) “broad powers” to ink such transactions.
DELAY – Beyoncé's record company and music publisher sent a cease and desist Donald Trumpof his presidential campaign for using the superstar's song “Freedom” in a social media video, prompting the campaign to quickly take down the offending post. Bey track serves as official theme song for Democratic presidential candidate's campaign Kamala Harris — likely why the Trump campaign used it.
AN ANTI-HERO? – Elsewhere in Trump world, the Foo Fighters publicly claimed they had not authorized the former president to play their 1997 anthem “My Hero” at a rally with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and would try to prevent him from doing so in the future. The campaign later claimed that it had, in fact, obtained the proper permissions to perform the song. Either way, the band said any royalties they received as a result of this use would be donated to the Harris/Walz campaign.
DAME TAXES NOT PAID – Just a week before his judicial auction Damon DashJay-Z's one-third stake in Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records has a surprising new wrinkle: It owes more than $8.7 million in unpaid taxes — and New York state says the proceeds from Roc-A-Fella sale must be used to pay them. The new claim complicated an already complicated situation in which Dash's stake in the famed record label is being sold by US Marshals to pay an $823,000 civil judgment.
HEY HO LET'S SUE – Opening a new front in the Ramones' never-ending legal war, Joey's brother Ramone (Mitchel Hyman, better known as Mickey Leigh) has sued Johnny's widow (Linda Cummings-Ramone), accusing her of infringing on the band's trademarks. a “relentless quest” to be associated with the Ramones.
DIDDY CASE UPDATE – Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed in February by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, arguing that the “shocking” lawsuit was filled with “blatant lies” designed to to force him to pay a lucrative settlement: “At nearly 100 pages, it includes countless stories, shameless celebrity names and irrelevant images.”
SNEAKER SETTLEMENT – Sneaker company Vans and a Brooklyn art collective called MSCHF have reached an agreement to end a long-running lawsuit over Tyga's “Wavy Baby” sneakers — a parody of the company's classic Old Skool shoe brand. The artists said that Tyga's expensive sneakers looked like a work of art and were thus protected by the First Amendment. But Vans called it a “blatant” violation of the company's IP, and federal courts have repeatedly agreed with that assessment.
CASE TRADEMARK AMAZING – The legendary rappers sued an EDM duo called ATLiens, the same name as one of OutKast's best-known songs. Big Boi and André 3000 have claimed that the name (a combination of “aliens” and their hometown of Atlanta) is a new linguistic term “invented by OutKast” — and that the rival group is confusing music fans by using it.
OCCUPATION OF SKRELI – Federal judge orders convicted pharmacy executive Martin Shkreli to hand him copies of Wu-Tang Clan's Once upon a time in Shaolinrejecting his claims that he had the right to keep copies of the one-of-a-kind album even after he lost it to federal prosecutors.
