Jas Prince (pictured right), the son of Rap-A-Lot Records founder and CEO James Prince, is suing the managers who handle rapper extraordinaire Drake for cheating him out of royalties he feels he deserves for discovering the artist, according to the New York Daily News.
In documents that were filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Prince alleges that he first introduced Drake, whose actual name is Aubrey Graham, to the hip-hop icon Lil Wayne in 2007 or 2008. According to Prince, he and Lil Wayne’s manager, Cortez Bryant, made a verbal agreement to persuade Drake into signing an exclusive recording deal and management agreement with the two of them.
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Prince contends in the court document that he and Bryant made a deal to divvy up all of Drake’s profits. The recording artist has sold millions of albums and is the recipient of countless awards.
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Not long after the agreement was made between Bryant and Prince, contention started to brew. Bryant formed his own Aspire Music Group and Laurant Management. He eventually signed Drake to an exclusive recording and management contract with his companies. Aspire reportedly took their newly discovered talent and signed him to Young Money Entertainment and Cash Money Records.
Prince alleges he was left out in the cold.
As far as Prince is concerned, he says Bryant “had no intention of honoring his agreement but instead intended to oust [him] from the Drake business,” reports Courthouse News Service.
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Both Prince and Bryant tried to come to a meeting of the minds and pockets. Prince and his entertainment company, Young Empire Music Group, were offered 22 percent of Aspire’s ownership share of Drake’s master recordings, and 5 percent of Drake’s gross pay, according to the lawsuit. But the court papers state, however, that Prince has not seen one red cent from his deal with Bryant.
Prince and his company are suing Aspire, Bryant, and Drake’s co-managers, Gerald Roberson and Derrick Lawrence of Three Kings and Laurant Management for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.
Prince is also requesting from the court that the defendants refrain from renegotiating Drake’s contract until there is a monetary settlement.
