Hip Hop legends Timbaland and Swizz Beatz are suing Triller for $28 million.
In January 2021, the two agreed to allow Triller to acquire Verzuz for an undisclosed amount that reports are saying it’s “clear that sum was in the mid-eight figures.”
The TikTok competitor is accused in the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday, of missing its deadline to transfer the first two installments to the duo in January 2022.
According to THR, the deal called for payments to be made “the first at closing, another shortly after, and two more on the first and second anniversaries of the deal.”
The superproducers were each expected to get $9 million by March 17, 2022, at the latest, followed by $500,000 per month for 10 months, with conditions that may accelerate those payouts, according to the magazine.
According to the lawsuit, Triller is facing allegations that none of those payments were made.
The lawsuit reads: “To date, Defendants have failed and refused to make any payment to [Swizz Beatz and Timbaland] of the past due sums due and owing.”
At the time of the deal, Swizzy and Timbaland told Complex, “This is a momentous occasion not only for Verzuz and Triller but the music business as a whole,” they said. “By putting Verzuz in the Triller Network ecosystem and expanding the Verzuz brand to be side by side with the powerful Triller app, we will be able to continue to grow and evolve the music business as a whole, as we have been doing. To have partners in Triller who share our vision, specifically to celebrate and elevate the amazing artists who continue to shape the culture around the world and give the consumer more direct access, is game-changing.”
Triller has recently been under fire for allegedly failing to pay Black artists by its publicly pledged terms. In 2021, it came to light that the app had paid 300 well-known social media influencers yearlong contracts totaling $14 million, claiming that this was “the largest one-time commitment of capital to Black creators.”
After being promised $4,000 each month, with half coming in the form of equity, The Washington Post published an in-depth article at the beginning of August that revealed the alleged neglect of these payments to artists and their ensuing financial troubles.
“This program was meant to make us financially free and to empower Black people,” said 22-year-old David Warren. “They told us that so much was going to happen for us. We were made to look like fools.” The article later quoted him saying, “All these platforms preach about diversity, but just like old Hollywood, there’s a lot of people being used as token characters while the owners of the platform’s profit.”
Another involved creator, 20-year-old William Horne, said that Triller became “super pushy about us and our deliverables, but when it came time for payment, they passed the deadline and breached their own contract.”
In a statement to the newspaper, chief executive Mahi de Silva refuted the payment issues, saying, “We specifically take pride in our role in creating a platform that celebrates Black creator content. No other medium has done as much as Triller has for this often overlooked and underrepresented part of the creator economy.”
Since the announcement, Triller has responded to the lawsuit and said that Swizz Beatz and Timbaland had been paid.
“This is truly unfortunate, and we hope it is nothing more than a misunderstanding driven by lawyers. We do not wish to air our dirty laundry in the press, but we have paid Swizz and Tim millions in cash and in stock,” a rep for the company said.
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