Megan Thee Stallion went to IG to vent about her current contractual situation with the independent label that she first signed to 1501 Certified Records. Meg said that CEO Carl Crawford and Houston rap mogul T. Farris was holding up the release of her new music.
She also claimed that she was only paid $15,000 after making the label about $7 million from streams.
In addition to those beefs, Megan says she’s been “attacked and threatened on social media,” by Crawford’s people.
According to reports, on Monday afternoon (March 2), a Texas federal judge granted Meg The Stallion (real name: Megan Pete) a temporary restraining order against her label 1501 Certified Entertainment and its CEO, former Major League Baseball star, Carl Crawford. The judge ordered 1501 Entertainment “to do nothing to prevent the release, distribution, and sale of Pete’s new records,” along with forbidding any interference with her or her career over social media or through her collaborators or associates.
Crawford spoke to Billboard and denied all the claims in the rapper’s lawsuit. “She just has so many holes in her story, and it’s almost on some delusional type stuff. The bubble of Hollywood and her eight million followers has really clouded her head because the stuff that she’s saying is not true. It’s a whole lie,” he said.
According to Crawford, after Megan signed to Roc Nation in September, she went radio silent, opting not to pay him or 1501 any of the money she owed. In Crawford’s eyes, the “Hot Girl Summer” MC’s strong-arm tactics were to avoid paying him for merchandise and live touring proceeds owed to him through the terms of their deal so that he would renegotiate her four-album deal contract that she initially signed with 1501. (Megan also signed a separate distribution deal with 300 Entertainment in 2019.)
“Let’s talk about your contract. It’s a great contract for a first-timer,” he offers. “What contract gives parts of their masters and 40% royalties and all that kind of stuff? Ask Jay-Z to pull one of his artists’ first contracts, and let’s compare it to what Megan got… I guarantee they won’t ever show you that.”
Megan was an unknown rapper from Houston and Crawford, who accumulated his net worth of $65 million during a successful career as an MLB baseball player, invested in her early rise and she took off.
Once she signed to Roc Nation management in January, the writing was on the wall for what has transpired. She’s becoming one of the biggest artists in the world and Roc Nation wants the whole pie, not just a piece. Megan is just doing what most artists do when they ascend to superstardom, trying to elevate.
The Indy label is trying to hold onto their golden goose and not get cut out of the situation. It’s a dirty game.
Crawford also understands that a battle with Roc Nation is a tough win. He explained that “everybody in the industry” is aware of Jay-Z and Roc Nation’s tactics. ‘Hey come in, then find the smallest things wrong with the problem — because there weren’t any problems before she left’ — and then she says that I didn’t want to negotiate?”
“They’re using that as a strong-arm tactic so that I can renegotiate the contract, ” Crawford said.”They’re holding the money, and they haven’t paid me since August. She has done over 15 shows. Y’all do the math. She gets $100,000 a show. She owes me, and I haven’t recouped almost $2 million that we spent on her, building her up so that Roc Nation would wanna come [around]. Where was Roc Nation when we were grinding and riding around on their backstreets? Roc Nation was nowhere to be found.”
Crawford also said the people closest to Megan Thee Stallion’s team at the time, T. Farris and her mother, were the ones who drew up the contract, which also gave her rights to her masters.
That’s a sweetheart deal by today’s standards.
“Their real plan was to get you out of my contract so they can sign you to Roc Nation. That’s all they want to do. We gave this girl a 60-40 split. Now go ask the artist about that. She got parts of her masters [the] first time. You think Jay-Z would have gave her part of her masters on her first deal with Roc Nation? F–k no. Then, she’s getting $100,000 a show and she don’t want to pay up. That’s what the issue was about. She signed with Roc Nation in August and decided she didn’t wanna pay me no more,” Crawford insisted.
As Crawford mentioned, with Megan’s social media popularity and Jay-Z’s massive musical corporate machine behind her, the four-time All-Star, four-time stolen base leader has his work cut out for him. He’s going to be made to look like the villain no matter how he spins it. Hitting a 1-2 slider is going to seem easy compared to the legal pugilism that lies ahead.
The music business has always been very strategic and at times nefarious. So far, the wheels of justice are turning in Meg’s favor. 1501 can’t stop her music from flowing through the airwaves and collecting streams and in the meantime, Roc Nation’s elite legal team will find a way to get Megan released from her deal and continue to push a rising force in the game through the roof, past the sun, and into the stars…
Unless Crawford has one big hit left in him.
