Despite the recent reconciliation between Birdman and Lil Wayne, the Cash Money CEO is looking to reignite the legal beef over Weezy’s share of Drake’s royalties.
In new docs obtained by The Blast, Birdman filed a suit in response to legal docs filed by Wayne’s manager last year. At the time, Aspire Music Group, co-founded by Cortez Bryant, sued Cash Money Records and Universal for holding out on royalties owed from Drake’s catalog.
According to the publication, Aspire said they discovered Drake, and had a deal that offered them a third of the net profits from Drake’s first six albums, in addition to a share of the copyrights. While the additional portion was to be split between Wayne’s Young Money and Birdman’s Cash Money.
But now, in response to the suit, Birdman’s label has filed a counter-suit, accusing Bryant and Wayne of working with lawyer, Ronald Sweeney, to skim a bigger share of Drake’s profits.
“Aspire was simply a shell company,” Cash Money claimed in the suit. “There was no business purpose to forming Aspire, other than to siphon profits out of the joint venture and to divert those profits to Sweeney, Bryant and Carter/Young Money. Aspire never conducted any business other than getting Drake signed to a record label. Aspire has never signed, nor sought to sign, a single additional artist.”
As a result, Birdman and Cash Money is looking to have Aspire’s initial lawsuit tossed. He is also demanding unspecified damages for fraud, aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty and interference with contractual relations.
However, neither Lil Wayne or Young Money are named as a defendant in the suit.
