Madlib, who’s suing his manager for ‘pervasive mismanagement.’ Photo Credit: Gergely Csatari
Veteran producer and DJ Madlib is suing his manager for allegedly failing to perform a variety of duties while simultaneously “engaging in persistent and pervasive mismanagement.”
Madlib (real name Otis Jackson Jr.) fired off the brief-but-multifaceted complaint yesterday, about 14 years after exiting Stones Throw Records and setting out “to own and control his music.” The latter objective laid the groundwork for a tie-up with former (and allegedly “fired”) Stone’s Throw exec Eothen Alapatt.
Known professionally as Egon, Alapatt had already founded Now-Again Records and, per the legal text, agreed to form and run a distinct company owned by Madlib and dedicated to his “career and the production, recording and distribution of his recorded music,” with the resulting profits to “be shared between” the two individuals.
Enter Madicine Show, which purportedly focused on Madlib’s career and was unilaterally controlled by Egon. That control allegedly extended to “all of the entity’s bank accounts” as well as “all of the decisions regarding incoming and outgoing monies” – including payments to Madlib himself.
Moreover, distribution pacts, social media management, tax filings, personnel decisions, and a whole lot else allegedly fell under Egon’s exclusive purview at Madicine Show. A few years after Madicine’s inception, a second entity, Rapp Cats, was established to zero in on Madlib’s merch and physical releases, per the legal text.
According once again to the suit, Egon also had control of this company and handled the business-related decisions at hand.
Predictably, given the legal action, all was not well behind the scenes; Madlib “recently discovered” that Egon was “engaged in rank self-dealing,” referring in part to “concealing information from [Madlib] and repeatedly breaching his duties.”
First up on Madlib’s laundry list of qualms is Egon’s alleged decision to “improperly” insert the aforementioned Now-Again “as middleman between” Madicine’s primary distributor, Ingrooves.
Meanwhile, Egon, once again via Now-Again, allegedly took “and apparently continues to take a fee off the top of any income generated by the sale or other distribution of” Madicine projects, referring mainly to releases from Madlib.
A Madlib-commissioned “forensic accounting” of Madicine and Rapp Cats, spanning 2018 through 2022, is said to have uncovered “several accounting irregularities as well as a lack of any backup documentation for” hundreds of thousands of dollars in “consulting” and “reimbursement” payments to Egon and others.
The alleged irregularities and lack of backup documents encompassed as well “the majority of inbound deposits to the two entities’ bank accounts (totaling in the several millions of dollars),” on top of different areas yet, per the suit.
Additionally, Egon has allegedly “failed and refused to produce the full and complete books and records of” Madicine and Rapp Cats – besides allegedly failing to allow a distribution-focused audit of Now-Again’s Madicine relationship, refusing to provide Madlib’s “newly retained professional team” with documents, and preventing Madlib from accessing multiple social handles and platforms to boot.
Lastly, Egon allegedly “directed a single lawyer and single accountant to represent him” along with Madlib (who wasn’t consulted about the decision), Now-Again, Madicine, and Rapp Cats alike.
All told, he and the other defendants (also including Rapp Cats’ Jeff Jank and Now-Again itself) are facing a demand for “a judicially supervised wind up and dissolution” of Rapp Cats and Madicine.
Egon himself and Now-Again have been accused of breach of fiduciary duty – with Madlib further seeking a court declaration that he’s effectively terminated any rights (from recorded music to trademarks and various areas in between) granted to Madicine and Rapp Cats.
DMN reached out to Egon for comment but didn’t receive a response in time for publishing.