Photo source: Getty Images

Just a day after reports surfaced a Texas federal judge granted rapper Megan Thee Stallion a temporary restraining order against her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, and its CEO, Carl Crawford (as we reported here), the former is speaking out against the criticism he is receiving as a result of the hoopla.

See inside:

Per our previous report, the controversy began when Stallion took to social media to announce she was not only locked in an unfair recording contract but that her label was halting the release of new music – namely her long-awaited debut album, ‘Suga.’ 

After suing her label home, a judge ordered the imprint (1501 Entertainment) to “do nothing to prevent the release, distribution, and sale of Megan’s new records.”  The judge further forbade “any interference with her or her career over social media or through her collaborators or associates.”

The move, hailed a victory for Stallion (born Megan Pete), was branded unjust by Crawford.  Taking to our friends at Billboard, he said:

“It’s a whole lie. Nothing is true that she said. Me being greedy and taking money from her, that’s crazy. I never tried to take nothing from her. The only thing we ever did was give, give, give.”

*****

That’s not all.  See highlights below:

Photo source: Getty Images

Via Billboard:

BB:  What was your initial reaction with Megan going on Instagram Live and accusing your label of preventing her from dropping new music?

CC:  My initial reaction was, “Man, I can’t believe this is serious.” She just has so many holes in her story, and it’s almost on some delusional type stuff. The bubble of Hollywood and her eight million followers has really clouded her head, because the stuff that she’s saying is not true. 

Everybody in the industry knows this is what Jay-Z and Roc Nation do: They come in, the find the smallest things wrong with the problem — because there weren’t any problems before she left — and then she says that I didn’t want to negotiate? Ok, tell everybody your definition of negotiating. Your definition is, “OK. I’m going to send Suge Knight’s old lawyers to come in, and it’s a stick-up…'” Of course, I’m like, “This isn’t a negotiation. This is a robbery.”  

 

BB:  When Megan announced her management deal with Roc Nation, from my understanding, you found out of the news the same time as everyone else, correct? 

When I found out like everybody else, I got emotional and made one comment. They took that and ran with it like, “Oh, he’s bitter, he’s mad'” Look, I’m just trying to see what’s up. I thought they had enough respect for me to at least tell me something. But it’s cool. She don’t have to tell me about that. That’s fine.

But at the end of the day, tell them what their real plan was. Their real plan was to get you out of my contract so they can sign you to Roc Nation. That’s all they want to do. We gave this girl a 60-40 split. Now go ask the artist about that. She got parts of her masters [the] first time. You think Jay-Z would have gave her part of her masters on her first deal with Roc Nation? F–k no. Then, she’s getting $100,000 a show and she don’t want to pay up. That’s what the issue was about. She signed with Roc Nation in August and decided she didn’t wanna pay me no more. They’re using that as a strong-arm tactic so that I can renegotiate the contract. They’re holding the money, and they haven’t paid me since August. She done over 15 shows. Y’all do the math. She gets $100,000 a show. She owe me, and I haven’t recouped almost $2 million that we spent on her, building her up so that Roc Nation would wanna come [around]. Where was Roc Nation at when we was grinding and riding around on them backstreets? Roc Nation was nowhere to be found.

BB:  On her Instagram Live, she repeatedly explained how she viewed her relationship with 1501 as “family.” You’re also speaking on that family bond that you once shared with her. Where did that dynamic get lost in the midst of everything?

CC: Everything was cool until her lawyers came in and told me that it was pretty much a stick-up. Unfortunately, when her mother died, the snake was able to come in and crawl in position to influence her head and tell her stuff. If her mother would have been here, we wouldn’t even be going through none of this stuff. Once her mother died, things changed a little bit. Everybody that wanted in, all the bloodsuckers were able to jump in. That’s what happened.

She got the dude [T. Farris] right up under her. He’s the snake. He did the contract. They had the lawyers. How didn’t you read your contract? She signed two contacts. You signed one with me and 300 [Entertainment]. You mean to tell me, you, your mama and your lawyer didn’t read over that stuff every time? Stop lying. You wasn’t 20, you were 23 years old. You was a grown up. You’re just a liar.

BB:What about her claiming that she’s only been paid $15,000 by the label?

CC: “How she been paid $15,000? As soon as we signed to 300, I wrote her a check for $50,000, and it’s signed with her name on the check. We can show you the proof. That’s another thing — I got all my receipts. They know it. I got all the receipts. We gave her a $10,000 advance when we first signed her and gave it to her mother. I don’t know what happened [with that]. 300 gave us a $200,000 check when we first signed. I gave her $50,000 of it.”

 

BB:  Let’s run through the numbers that Megan is claiming in her lawsuit against 1501. She says that 1501 gets 60% of her recording income. 

CC:  Right, and she gets the 40%.

BB:  But she’s claiming that chunks of the 40% is being given to third party people like producers, mixers, featured artists, etc. Is that true?

CC:  Nah, I don’t think that’s true either… It’s a great deal. She wants to talk about a bad deal — she’s disrespecting her mother by saying that, because her mother and T. Farris are the ones who did it. Those two worked out the deal with the lawyer. I didn’t even have nothing to do with it.

BB: And you guys supposedly get 30% of all her touring money and 30% of all her merch, as well?

CC:  Well, we did a 360 deal where it was a 70-30. The reason why it was a 70-30 was because we gave up so much. We gave up part of her masters right now, we gave her a 60-40 split. That’s why we got so much on that side. We knew we did some stuff that people don’t do.

Your thoughts?