![\"Entertainment](\"https:\/\/www.digitalmusicnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Deezle-1024x546.jpg\" "\\"Entertainment\\"")
<\/p>\n
Producer Deezle (Darius Harrison), who\u2019s filed a missing-royalties lawsuit against Universal Music, posing with his Grammys from Lil Wayne\u2019s Tha Carter III<\/em>. Photo Credit: Claudio Ch Zayas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Deezle and his Drum Major Music Entertainment company just recently submitted the multifaceted lawsuit to a New York federal court. This time around, Universal Music Group (UMG) is the only defendant.<\/p>\n 14 years back, however, Deezle levied a similar action against Lil Wayne himself; the involved parties settled in 2012. Despite the resolution \u2013 more on this in a moment \u2013 the producer is evidently unready to put his royalty qualms in the rearview.<\/p>\n As recapped in the newly filed lawsuit, after scoring a 2004 Cash Money Records producer deal and producing \u201cWeezy Baby\u201d on Tha Carter II<\/em> (2005), Deezle went on to ink a producer agreement with Lil Wayne-founded Young Money Entertainment in late 2007.<\/p>\n Per the plaintiffs, Young Money agreed to provide \u201cno less than semi-annual accounting statements reflecting all royalties accrued\u201d as part of the tie-up. Plus, Young Money\u2019s distributor, Cash Money, was said to be compelled to account to the filing parties \u201cdirectly and at the same time it\u201d accounted to Young Money.<\/p>\n In terms of where Universal Music fits into the picture, stated concisely, the major has long handled Cash Money\u2019s distribution<\/a>. And Lil Wayne reportedly sold the Young Money catalog to UMG for $100 million in 2020.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, in light of the just-levied complaint, these payments have purportedly failed to come through.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a shocking, willful and intentional breach of the YME Producer Agreement,\u201d the plaintiffs summed up, \u201cYME failed to [account to] Harrison pursuant to the YME Producer Agreement and UMG has breached the agreement by failing to report and pay royalites [sic] for over a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, regarding the aforesaid 2004 Cash Money producer pact, Deezle has pointed to allegedly unpaid royalties for his six credits on Birdman\u2019s Fast Money <\/em>(2005), besides the \u201cShorty Bounce\u201d track Lil Wayne recorded for The Longest Yard<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cUMG administers the payments to producers, artists and songwriters relating to the masters at issue and has failed to pay Plaintiffs,\u201d the filing parties summed up. \u201cPlaintiffs have not been paid any producer royalites [sic] associated with the YME Producer Agreement or CMR Producer Agreement for over a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n While this suit\u2019s timing is likely to take center stage as the legal battle plays out, Deezle is seeking at least $6 million in damages for the allegedly missing royalties. And in the bigger picture, the producer has joined the likes of Iggy Azalea<\/a> and Limp Bizkit<\/a> in formally accusing the major of failing to pay royalties.<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\nEntertainment Lil Wayne producer Deezle (real name Darius Harrison) is suing Universal Music for allegedly failing to pay him millions in due royalties from Tha Carter III <\/em>(2008) and more. <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Under the newer contract, the producer then contributed to six Tha Carter III <\/em>tracks, among them \u201cLollipop.\u201d <\/strong><\/h4>\n
Consequently, Young Money (as well as Cash Money and, in turn, UMG) is allegedly compelled to forward to Deezle and his company the appropriate \u201c4 percent royalty rate\u201d on the above-outlined Tha Carter III <\/em>efforts.<\/h4>\n
Back to the previously highlighted settlement, Universal Music is said to have started \u201csending royalty statements to\u201d Deezle after the prior suit\u2019s 2012 resolution. But the major allegedly \u201cceased sending\u201d those statements \u201c[a]lmost immediately\u201d thereafter.<\/h4>\n