Megan Thee Stallion Countersued By Record Label Over The Definition Of "Album"

Megan Thee Stallion’s label 1501 Certified Entertainment—which she sued last month, has filed a countersuit claiming that the rapper is in breach of contract. The dispute arises from her latest release Something For Thee Hotties, which the label argues falls short of the requirements needed for the record to classify as an “album” under the contract the rapper has signed with the label.

The label is seeking a declaration from the courts that the recording is not an album, as well as monetary damages based on contract breaches and attorneys’ fees and costs.

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The original suit filed by Megan alleges that the only contractually obligated requirement to define a release as an album was a 45-minute runtime. The rapper says that not only did she meet that requirement, but she exceeded it my two seconds.

Her legal team says that she was only informed two months after its release that the label did not consider it an album, something 1501 denies. Steven M. Zager—an attorney for 1501— told Billboard that the label had “told her from the very beginning this is not going to count toward your album count.”

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In the countersuit, 1501 argues that Something For Thee Hotties is more of a mixtape as the release contains several interludes, old freestyles from YouTube, and “archival material.” They allege that the total runtime of fresh material on the release is merely 29 minutes, falling short of the 45-minutes the label required for the release to count as an album.

The label says that Megan is well aware that any album she makes must include at least 12 “new master records of studio performances,” and they are required to be unreleased. Furthermore, the label claims that it must approve all her tracks —something that didn’t happen with Something For Thee Hotties.

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“This is yet another absurd attempt by 1501 to disregard Megan’s album and squeeze more money and more free work out of her for as long as possible,” Megan Thee Stallion’s attorney Brad Hancock says. “We will ask the court to protect Megan from this type of abuse.”

If a judge sides with the label that the release doesn’t count as an album under her contract, she would owe the label two more “albums” under her contract.

Source: HypeBeast, Billboard

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