Lil Wayne Producer Deezle Sues UMG Over Missing Royalties

Lil Wayne producer Deezle (real name Darius Harrison) is suing Universal Music for allegedly failing to pay him millions in due royalties from Tha Carter III (2008) and more.

Deezle and his Drum Major Music Entertainment company just recently submitted the multifaceted lawsuit to a New York federal court. This time around, Universal Music Group (UMG) is the only defendant.

14 years back, however, Deezle levied a similar action against Lil Wayne himself; the involved parties settled in 2012. Despite the resolution – more on this in a moment – the producer is evidently unready to put his royalty qualms in the rearview.

As recapped in the newly filed lawsuit, after scoring a 2004 Cash Money Records producer deal and producing “Weezy Baby” on Tha Carter II (2005), Deezle went on to ink a producer agreement with Lil Wayne-founded Young Money Entertainment in late 2007.

Under the newer contract, the producer then contributed to six Tha Carter III tracks, among them “Lollipop.”

Per the plaintiffs, Young Money agreed to provide “no less than semi-annual accounting statements reflecting all royalties accrued” as part of the tie-up. Plus, Young Money’s distributor, Cash Money, was said to be compelled to account to the filing parties “directly and at the same time it” accounted to Young Money.

In terms of where Universal Music fits into the picture, stated concisely, the major has long handled Cash Money’s distribution. And Lil Wayne reportedly sold the Young Money catalog to UMG for $100 million in 2020.

Consequently, Young Money (as well as Cash Money and, in turn, UMG) is allegedly compelled to forward to Deezle and his company the appropriate “4 percent royalty rate” on the above-outlined Tha Carter III efforts.

Unsurprisingly, in light of the just-levied complaint, these payments have purportedly failed to come through.

“In a shocking, willful and intentional breach of the YME Producer Agreement,” the plaintiffs summed up, “YME failed to [account to] Harrison pursuant to the YME Producer Agreement and UMG has breached the agreement by failing to report and pay royalites [sic] for over a decade.”

Additionally, regarding the aforesaid 2004 Cash Money producer pact, Deezle has pointed to allegedly unpaid royalties for his six credits on Birdman’s Fast Money (2005), besides the “Shorty Bounce” track Lil Wayne recorded for The Longest Yard.

Back to the previously highlighted settlement, Universal Music is said to have started “sending royalty statements to” Deezle after the prior suit’s 2012 resolution. But the major allegedly “ceased sending” those statements “[a]lmost immediately” thereafter.

“UMG administers the payments to producers, artists and songwriters relating to the masters at issue and has failed to pay Plaintiffs,” the filing parties summed up. “Plaintiffs have not been paid any producer royalites [sic] associated with the YME Producer Agreement or CMR Producer Agreement for over a decade.”

While this suit’s timing is likely to take center stage as the legal battle plays out, Deezle is seeking at least $6 million in damages for the allegedly missing royalties. And in the bigger picture, the producer has joined the likes of Iggy Azalea and Limp Bizkit in formally accusing the major of failing to pay royalties.