Temporary Blogging

Megan Pete, known as Megan Thee Stallion is a rapper, singer, and international sensation. She started her music career independently in 2016, and was later signed to 1501 Certified Entertainment by Carl Crawford. She was also signed to 300 Entertainment, and after her song “Hot Girl Summer” broke into the US Billboard Hot 100 at #11, she signed a management deal with Roc Nation in 2019. Her climb to the top did not come without significant setbacks, including tragedies both personal and professional. 

Pete detailed her initial grievances in an Instagram Live on March 1, 2020. She claimed she  requested to renegotiate her contract with 1501 after her new management team and lawyers at Roc Nation alerted her to certain terms of her contract that were causing her to lose money. Pete said after requesting a renegotiation, “everything went left.” She claims she didn’t know what was in her initial contract because she was “young”. The label prevented her from releasing her EP Suga, but was permitted to after courts permitted a restraining order against 1501, a very early win in the lawsuit. Suga was released on March 6 2020. 

Pete’s money troubles with her label are the music industry standard. The industry has thrived off of legally manipulating young musicians out of their money, such as Wiz Khalifa, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Using confusing legal jargon, the musician’s lack of resources and the promise of high earnings with a large initial signing bonus, labels have been able to successfully own and profit off of many artists. Pete, however, has been fortunate enough to have a new management team that has been looking out for her. 

The 2021 release of Something for Thee Hotties, was also contentious. Pete sued stating that 1501 was intentionally mislabeling Something so it did not count as an album. 1501 countersued stating that it did not count as an album because it only had 29 minutes of new material. Notably, the song “Kitty Kat” includes the lyric “I’ll never let another label try to f– me.” These cases are still in development. 

Her release of Traumazine in 2022 also came with its own troubles. Traumazine was leaked, and with it came new legal complaints from Pete as well as demanding $1 million in damages. She has not formally accused 1501 or 300 of leaking the album, but claims 1501 has “not taken any action to help investigate”. 300, Pete’s distributor, is owned by Warner Music Group. Lawyers have asked WMG to hand over relevant documents that could lead to the identity of who leaked the album. 1501’s lawyer, Steven Zager, denies these allegations. 

Pete has remained confident that she will win her lawsuits, and so are her fans. The publicity of her lawsuit and her confidence has been refreshing. It is rare to see lawsuits regarding record deals be discussed openly, but hopefully this will lead to future artists learning from Pete’s mistakes. Industry-wide change can occur slowly, but awareness can prevent further exploitation.