T-Pain is being accused by his ex-manager of squandering millions he made in his career despite being warned to slow down the spending, and now they have hit the rapper with a federal lawsuit over unpaid commissions.
On December 11, Chase Entertainment sued the rapper (real name: Faheem Najm) accusing him of screwing them out of money owed.
The management company claims T-Pain’s recent lawsuit against them over a million in alleged money owed to him is nonsense.
They claim, “In a futile effort to come up with a negotiating strategy to help T-Pain leverage his way out of his irrefutable legal obligation to pay Chase post-termination management commissions, believed to be in excess of $1 Million, T-Pain finds himself reduced to fabricating absurd and baseless claims against his former manager. Despite repeated demands by Chase, T- Pain has refused to account to or pay Chase for their rightful share of commissions.”
Chase Entertainment claims to have managed T-Pain for years and under their guidance, he generated millions of dollars in earnings. “Sadly, much of that money was squandered by T-Pain, despite Chase’s entreaties to T-Pain over the years that he control his profligate spending habits. Unfortunately, T-Pain’s financial self-destructive conduct continued unabated even after the parties ended their professional relationship.”
The managers accuse the rapper of being the one who breached their deal by not paying them commissions owed. The deal they had with T-Pain stated once it was terminated, they would still collect commissions for five years following. They claim he has refused to turn over accounting to them.
They point out his income since their deal was terminated includes his music publishing royalties with Universal Music, recording artist agreement with RCA (5-Album deal), $2 million advance paid to by Universal, digital royalties and many other alleged unaccounted-for deals.
Chase is suing for in excess of $1 million dollars in damages.
Chase Entertainment denies all allegations of wrongdoing in the rapper’s lawsuit against them.
Earlier this year, T-Pain originally sued Chase Entertainment accusing them of illegally taking commissions for years and claimed to be owed over a million dollars.
The rapper explained he signed a deal with Chase Entertainment back in 2005, which was extended for five years in 2009. They were to be his personal manager and talent agent in exchange for 20% commission from his recordings and endorsements.
T-Pain said he paid all the commissions over the years and did so on time. He says he only recently learned the company was not licensed to be an agent.
The rapper claimed he fired his manager in 2014 and demanded they cease interfering with his business matters. T-Pain said the manager has failed to turn over all monies received relating to his music career.
The lawsuit accused his former manager of not paying all the expenses he was required to, failing to account for all the money brought in and failing to provide accounting of his finances.
T-Pain also accuses his former manages of illegally taking commissions without obtaining a talent license. He sued seeking in excess of $1 million in damages and for the return of all commissions he paid since 2005.
