Lawsuit
Former Employees File Class Action Lawsuit Against Pollen Over Unpaid Wages
Amid the fallout of Pollen, the destination events company is now facing a class action lawsuit from former employees, Digital Music News reports. Pollen recently went into administration in the U.K. after receiving droves of complaints from consumers, many of whom allege the company failed to issue refunds for events that had been canceled. The company also drew the ire of a number of its partners, like Drumcode Malta, whose organizers said Pollen’s highly publicized struggles forced them to pull the plug on the festival. As the news circulated, Pollen released a statement attributing its pitfalls to a number of factors, including COVID-19 restrictions and a global economic downtick. The statement arrived days after Live Nation released its Q2 financials, reporting $4.43 billion in ...
Pay Up: Swizz Beatz & Timbaland Sues Triller For $28M Over VERZUZ Deal
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Frazer Harrison / Getty VERZUZ was launched at the height of the pandemic by megastar producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, and they elevated the platform to a level that a deal with Triller commenced. However, it appears that the deal has turned sour and the pair launched a $28 million lawsuit in the direction of their business partners. According to a report from The Washington Post, the filing of Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s VERZUZ lawsuit against Triller took place on Tuesday (August 16) and it appears that Triller has defaulted on paying the creators of the platform. “To date, Defendants have failed and refused to make any payment to [Swizz Beatz and Timbaland] of the past due sums due and owing,” reads a portion of the lawsuit. It claims that Triller ...
Johnson & Johnson to Stop Production of Talc-Based Baby Powder
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty After being sued by cancer patients who claimed that its baby powder contained asbestos—Johnson & Johnson stopped using talc in 2020. Now, the company will switch to cornstarch in its baby powder by 2023. More than 40,000 lawsuits were filed against the company over the past few years with plaintiffs alleging they were sickened with ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. Further, they allege that the company continued to use talc even knowing the health risks. “It’s kind of the no-brainer solution,” Alex Scranton, director of science and research at the environmental advocacy group Women’s Voices for the Earth told The New York Times of the discontinuation. Nearly 200 organizations participated in a campaign led by B...
SEC charges 11 individuals over $300M crypto ‘pyramid scheme’
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged 11 individuals for their alleged role in the creation of a “fraudulent crypto pyramid scheme” platform Forsage. The charges were laid in a United States District Court in Illinois on August 1, with the SEC alleging that the founders and promoters of the platform used the “fraudulent crypto pyramid and Ponzi scheme” to raise more than $300 million from “millions of retail investors worldwide.” The SEC complaint states that Forsage was modeled such that investors would be financially rewarded by recruiting new investors to the platform in a “typical Ponzi structure,” which spanned multiple countries including the United States and Russia. According to the SEC, a Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud th...
Chicago House Music Legend Sues Kanye West Over Alleged Copyright Infringement
Legendary house music artist Marshall Jefferson has launched a lawsuit against Kanye West on the basis of alleged copyright infringement. The complaint, filed in New York’s U.S. District Court, alleges West sampled Jefferson’s 1986 song “Move Your Body” without licensed permission. After producing under the alias Virgo, it was the first track of Jefferson’s career he had released under his own name. Billboard reports the lawsuit claims West sampled Jefferson’s song 22 times in “Flowers,” a single from his 11th studio album, Donda 2, which released in February 2022. Unlike its predecessor, Donda 2 was released exclusively on West’s own Stem Player platform. The lawsuit notes that West earned a reported $2.2 million in physical Stem P...
Grammy-Winning Artist H.E.R. Sues Label for Release
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Scott Dudelson / Getty Singer-songwriter H.E.R. is suing her record label for release citing a California statute that limits contracts to seven years. H.E.R. née Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson filed for declaratory relief and violation of the business and professions code and is seeking to be released from MBK Entertainment. The company is owned by her manager Jeff Robinson who signed her in 2011 at the age of 14. Related Stories According to documents reviewed by The Blast, H.E.R. is named as an ‘exclusive employee’ for an initial period which “ended the later of 15 months after May 19, 2011 or 12 months after the commercial release of Wilson’s first album under contract, and up to five additional option period of more than one year each.” Wilso...
Four Tet Wins Legal Battle Over Streaming Royalties Dispute
Four Tet has come out on the winning end of a legal battle against his label after around a year of litigation. The tenured electronic music producer brought a legal claim against his record label, Domino, alleging the organization had only paid him 18% of the royalty share for his music instead of the 50% rate promised in his contract. Signed in 2001, Four Tet’s agreement with Domino yielded multiple acclaimed albums, including Pause, Rounds and Everything Ecstatic. The ugly battle led to Domino temporarily removing the albums from streaming services per their legal guidance, though the music has since been restored. In filing the suit, Four Tet sought £70,000 in backpay from Domino. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles Now, Four Tet has announced that he’ll be r...
Elon Musk gets hit with ‘ridiculous’ $258B Dogecoin lawsuit
Billionaire Elon Musk, along with his companies SpaceX and Tesla Inc, are all being sued for an astonishing $258 billion in damages for being “engaged in a crypto pyramid scheme” involving Dogecoin (DOGE). The damages sought are more than 34 times Dogecoin’s current market cap of $7.5 billion and nearly three times its ATH market cap of $88.68 billion in mid-2021. Filed in the New York District Court by an attorney at Evan Spencer Law on Thursday, the class-action lawsuit alleges that Musk “used his pedestal as World’s Richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure, and amusement.” In the filing, plaintiff Keith Johnson, a U.S. citizen, alleges that Musk and his corporations were “unjustly enriched” by $86 billion as a result of wire fraud, gambling ...
Mo’Nique and Netflix Settle Bias Lawsuit
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Victoria McGraw @victoriasaidit / Radio 1 Digital Comedian Mo’NIque has settled her lawsuit with Netflix where she accused the streaming giant of racial and sexual discrimination for making her a lowball offer of $500,000 for a one-hour comedy special on the service. The matter has been “amicably resolved,” Michael Parks, an attorney representing Mo’Nique in the suit, told The Hollywood Reporter. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. Related Stories The comedian accused Netflix of underpaying Black women pointing out the eight-figure deals offered to other comedians including Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock.“The offer made to Mo’Nique was merely an ‘opening offer’ from which there was an expectation — both by Netflix and Mo’Nique ...
Mo’Nique and Netflix Settle Bias Lawsuit
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Victoria McGraw @victoriasaidit / Radio 1 Digital Comedian Mo’NIque has settled her lawsuit with Netflix where she accused the streaming giant of racial and sexual discrimination for making her a lowball offer of $500,000 for a one-hour comedy special on the service. The matter has been “amicably resolved,” Michael Parks, an attorney representing Mo’Nique in the suit, told The Hollywood Reporter. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. Related Stories The comedian accused Netflix of underpaying Black women pointing out the eight-figure deals offered to other comedians including Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock.“The offer made to Mo’Nique was merely an ‘opening offer’ from which there was an expectation — both by Netflix and Mo’Nique ...
Joseline Hernandez Slapped With $25 Million Lawsuit Over Alleged Fade Delivery
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Unique Nicole / Getty Joseline Hernandez has her share of fans and detractors alike, and it probably didn’t help matters much after the launch of her Joseline’s Cabaret series. Four women who were dancers on the controversial show launched a lawsuit against Hernandez alleging assault and battery to the tune of $25 million. TMZ Hip Hop exclusively reports that Hernandez, 35, is being accused of ambushing the dancers and violently beating them, whispers of which were already news to some fans of the series and a recent statement from cast member Amber Ali supports the chatter. From TMZ Hip Hop: Related Stories Four women who say they were dancers on “Joseline’s Cabaret” are accusing her of ambushing them on set, and violently opening a can of whoop-ass. In ...
Child Support-less Blac Chyna Sets Her Attention On Lawsuit Against Kardashian Klan
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: PG/Bauer-Griffin / Getty Blac Chyna isn’t interested in keeping up with the Kardashians but she’s definitely getting her coins. Less than one week after Blac Chyna took to social media to reveal she was losing three cars due to not receiving child support from either Tyga or Rob Kardashian, Blac Chyna announced via a posted screenshot of her notepad that she is “refocusing her attention” on her legal dispute with the Kardashians over the cancellation of her reality show with then fiance, Rob Kardashian, Rob & Chyna. “I plan to re-focus my attention on my trial against Kris Jenner and her daughters Kim, Khloé, and Kylie which starts in 13 days,” she wrote in the statement on Twitter. “When they got my No. 1 hit show killed back in January 2017, that no...
