The legal battle for rapper Megan Thee Stallion when it comes to her record label has taken a turn, leading up to the American Music Awards, set for this Sunday, Nov. 20. The “Savage” artist, born Megan Pete, has been granted a request for a restraining order against 1501 Certified Entertainment and her distributor, 300 Entertainment.
The Legal Battle
The “Plan B” rapper claimed the label “unlawfully” hindered her ability to “exploit, license or publish her music” for the upcoming American Music Awards, according to Billboard.
Court documents obtained by PEOPLE show that ABC, which will broadcast the AMAs, wanted to use Meg’s song “Her” off the rapper’s second studio album “Traumazine” to advertise the popular music awards show. Reportedly, before Meg could accept or decline the offer she uncovered 1501 was objecting to ABC’s use of the song, something her lawyers argued would ‘negatively impact [Megan] as an artist,’” as it wouldn’t allow her to promote the popular song or provide an opportunity to reach new fans.
Megan Thee Stallion Granted Restraining Order
Harris County District Court in Texas granted Megan’s request for an emergency “ex parte” order, in essence an emergency order, due to there not being “enough time to give notice to Defendants, hold a hearing, and issue a restraining order before the irreparable injury, loss, or damage would occur.”
Megan’s appeal added that the nomination of her for favorite female hip-hop artist would “suffer irreparable harm if her music cannot be used in conjunction with her promotion for the AMAs.”
According to PEOPLE Magazine, attorney Ira Friedman wrote, “I believe 1501 may simply [be] trying to object to use to Pete’s [Megan] music to be used in promotional content leading up to the AMAs because Pete and 1501 have been engaged in contentious litigation for over two and a half years, and 1501 simply wants to harm Pete’s image and career.”
An attorney for 1501, Steven M. Zager, told PEOPLE the restraining order “is a little frustrating.”
Previous Lawsuits Filed Against Label
As stated before in court documents, this is not the first time Megan has had issues with her record label. The “Crybaby” artist has filed at least two lawsuits, one filed in February in which she claimed 1501 refused to count her 2021 release “Something for Thee Hotties” as an album. The artist’s deal with 1501 reportedly expresses that Megan must produce three albums to fulfill the obligations of the agreement. In another lawsuit, filed in September, Megan is seeking more than $1 million dollars in damages, claiming 1501 “systematically failed” to pay the proper amount of royalties to which she was due and that the label “wrongfully allowed for excessive marketing and promotion charges.” As part of that suit, she also accused the label of leaking her “Traumazine” album.
In March, the “Pressurelicious” rapper tweeted about 1501 CEO Carl Crawford reportedly using his company’s money that was supposed to be spent on her on new jewelry.
“My lawyers asked him [Crawford] for an expense report(money 1501 supposedly has spent on ME)… why this grown a– man put his jewelry and chains on there… lord free me from this joke a– label.”
In 2020, the Houston hottie went live on Instagram and revealed her independent label wouldn’t allow her to release any new music because she attempted to renegotiate her contract.
“Soon as I said, ‘I wanna renegotiate my contract’ everything went left. I’m not a greedy person, I’m not a person that likes confrontation…” She continued, “Y’all dont see no music from Megan Thee Stallion? It’s because 1501 don’t wanna drop that music.”
While Megan is still fighting to be released from 1501, for now she has the victory of her music being used for the Nov. 20, 2022 American Music Awards.
