H.E.R. is suing MBK Entertainment for the rights to her music catalog after having signed with the record label when she was just 14 years old. Seeking to be released from the contract, she claims it is a violation of the business and professions code. The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of the State of California in Los Angeles County on Thursday.
MBK Entertainment is owned by her longtime manager Jeff Robinson. H.E.R. claims that Robinson, operating as her manager, fired the law firm that first represented her and replaced them with his own lawyers.
“Robinson caused his own lawyers to represent Wilson in the negotiation of subsequent contracts, including publishing and touring agreements.” the lawsuit claims. She also alleges “those lawyers took 5% of the deals they negotiated, but did not have a written fee agreement or a conflict waiver signed by Wilson, and said that they performed the services ‘as a favor’ to their client Robinson who was paid 20% commission for each of those deals.”
H.E.R. argues that her deal with MBK Entertainment “significantly limited” her “employment rights” and that she “has not been free to provide her recording services except as permitted or dictated by MBK.”
She adds that the company “has exclusively owned the right to exploit her name and likeness for her recordings.”
In addition to getting out of the contract, H.E.R. wants “restitution and disgorgement of funds according to proof; for costs of suit incurred herein; and for such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.”
H.E.R. released her debut album, Back of My Mind, in 2021.
[Via]
