J. Prince weighed in on the legal battle between Megan Thee Stallion and Carl Crawford, the founder of her record label 1501 Certified Entertainment.
Megan, however, would not let Prince’s post go unanswered, and she hit back just hours later with a lengthy response on Instagram.
In his Instagram message, which came Thursday, March 5, Prince said that he’s familiar with the kind of beef taking place between Megan and Crawford, since he founded his own independent label, Rap-A-Lot Records, in 1987.
The problems between Megan and Crawford began after Megan said her label wouldn’t allow her to release new music, because she wanted to renegotiate her contract. She also said that Crawford uses Prince to intimidate people in the music business.
“Houston we have a problem,” wrote Prince next to a photo of himself with Crawford. “Megan along with Roc Nation employee Geetanjali Grace Lyer decided to include my name in a lawsuit wrapped around lies and stupidity. We gone get this s–t straight.”
“The root is a familiar one for me coming from a successful independent record labels perspective,” the message continued. “We as independent record labels make many sacrifices along with our artists. After we do all the hard work together with artists, it’s a known fact that major record labels and established managers attempt to poach the fruits of our labor.”
Prince said that one of the ways larger labels and management teams try to take artists from independent companies, is to find fault with the artist’s deal.
He explained that it’s something that record labels in New York and Los Angeles tried to do with his artist on Rap-A-Lot-Records in the past, which he stopped.
Prince — who’s been called a close friend and mentor to Crawford, while Megan reportedly refers to Prince as Crawford’s “partner” in her lawsuit — then backed what Crawford said earlier this week in his response to Megan: That she really didn’t want to negotiate her contract, and her handlers only gave the label demands.
“For the record we have no problem with negotiating with Megan but we do have a problem with dictators,” wrote Prince.
“I find it very interesting that Roc Nation [which manages Megan] would allow their employee to sign an affidavit and statement full of slanderous lies on my methods of doing business when we have partnered together on several occasions,” he added. “I don’t think Jay Z is aware of this but only time will tell.”
Prince then gave his opinion on how he perceives Megan and her recording contract.
“Megan seems to be a perfect candidate for self destruction,” he wrote. “Any artist in the music industry will testify that a 40% profit share is a great deal especially for an unestablished artist that til this day has never delivered an album.”
In the last part of his message, Prince brought up Megan’s late mother and former manager, Holly Thomas, who passed away from a brain tumor, which Megan confirmed on Instagram in March of 2019.
“I give credit to where credit is due,” he stated. “Megan along with her mother, who evidently could read (God rest her soul), negotiated a good deal.”
“The homie Carl was an angel in Megan’s eyes when he was spending hundreds of thousands investing in her career,” added Prince. “Now that he’s helped her become a successful artist she stopped paying him his percentage and views him as the devil.”
Megan responded with, “FACTS ARE FACTS AND THE FACTS ARE PUBLIC ‼️ I’m extremely pleased that 1501 and Carl Crawford were denied the request to dissolve the Court order and try to stop my music from being released. I will proceed with the release of “SUGA,” Megan began.
“I will stand up for myself and won’t allow two men to bully me, I am NO ONES PROPERTY,” she added. “Y’all are choosing to highlight the issue of music splits…talk about everything else. This has nothing to do with anyone else including JAY-Z, stop deflecting and trying to make this a publicity stunt.”
Earlier this week, a judge granted Megan a restraining order so she could release her new EP “Suga” on Friday. Crawford then filed a motion to try and eliminate that order, but a judge turned his motion down.
