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Lil Wayne Denies Birdman's Claim He Conspired to Take Bigger Cut of Drake’s Royalties

Home / The Law / Lil Wayne Denies Birdman's Claim He Conspired to Take Bigger Cut of Drake’s Royalties

By TheBlast Staff on November 1, 2018 at 12:07 AM EDT

Lil Wayne is denying Birdman’s claim he conspired to concoct a scheme to take a bigger cut of Drake’s music money, saying the allegation makes no sense.

On October 29, Wayne – through his music company, Aspire Music Group – filed docs to dismiss Cash Money's counter-suit.

Aspire points out this lawsuit against them was filed “on the heels of Cash Money and Universal settling related claims brought against them by Young Money Entertainment” and its owner, Lil Wayne.

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They accuse Birdman and his label of trying to “completely rewrite” history about Aspire and how it was formed in their countersuit. Aspire says Cash Money is trying to “concoct a new fantasy narrative that casts Cash Money as the long-suffering victim of a scheme orchestrated by the very parties that it just settled with – Young Money and its owner principal Dwayne Carter."

Aspire argues that if the scheme is to be believed, Lil Wayne would be engaging in a series of acts that would ultimately harm him financially, which they claim makes no sense.

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They point out these allegations were never once mentioned until after the Lil Wayne and Birdman lawsuit was settled earlier this year, despite the alleged fraud taking place several years prior. Wayne’s company is demanding the entire counter-suit be thrown out.

Back in 2017, Aspire Music Group, co-founded by Lil Wayne’s manager, Cortez Bryant, sued Cash Money Records and Universal Music accusing them of holding out on royalties owed from Drake’s music. Lil Wayne and Bryant are both principals of Aspire Music.

Aspire said they discovered Drake and claimed to have a deal in place entitling them to 1/3 share of the net profits from Drake’s first six albums, along with a share of the copyrights. The other 2/3 was split between Wayne’s Young Money and Cash Money.

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Earlier this year, Birdman’s Cash Money Records counter-sued Bryant’s Aspire Music Group, accusing Bryant and Lil Wayne of conspiring with a lawyer named Ronald Sweeney to allegedly gain a larger share of Drake’s profits.

According to documents, Cash Money claimed Aspire "was simply a shell company,” adding, “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.”

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Cash Money is demanding Aspire’s lawsuit against them be dismissed and unspecified damages for fraud, aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty and interference with contractual relations.

Lil Wayne nor Young Money are a defendant to Cash Money’s lawsuit, which is interesting because back in June, Birdman settled Wayne’s extremely time-consuming lawsuit over his record deal for more than $10 million.

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