Offset has initiated a lawsuit against a producer connected to his 2023 album Set It Off, alleging that the former collaborator has been requesting a significant increase in fees and royalties well after the agreement was made.
The lawsuit, lodged in the federal court of Los Angeles, states that representatives for ChaseTheMoney (Chase Rose) signed an agreement prior to the album’s release in October 2023, which included payment for his production contributions on the track “Worth It.” However, several months later, ChaseTheMoney’s new management reportedly reached out to request higher compensation for the same work.
“ChaseTheMoney’s new manager suggested revised terms for the producer contract, involving a producer fee exceeding five times the initially agreed amount, along with a royalty percentage that was more than double,” Offset’s legal team states in their court complaint submitted on Tuesday (March 11).
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After Offset’s team “quickly responded” that the agreement was final and “would not be up for re-negotiation,” legal representatives claim that ChaseTheMoney’s team repeatedly proposed alternative versions of the contract, each featuring “various proposals regarding the financial terms.”
When Offset’s team reportedly persisted in their refusal to modify the agreement, the lawsuit alleges that ChaseTheMoney began asserting that the former manager who negotiated the Set It Off agreement — identified only as J Hill in legal documents — was not actually “his manager” during the initial deal’s negotiation.
However, according to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, ChaseTheMoney explicitly directed them to J Hill for the agreement, stating that the producer indicated via text to Offset and his team that Hill would “handle logistics” for clearing his contributions to “Worth It.”
“ChaseTheMoney referred to J Hill as his manager in multiple communications with Offset and his A&R team [and] ChaseTheMoney instructed Offset and his A&R team to discuss the clearance of the recording with J Hill on ChaseTheMoney’s behalf,” Offset’s lawyers assert. “J Hill confirmed in writing that he was representing ChaseTheMoney as his manager, and no one associated with or linked to ChaseTheMoney had ever claimed or suggested prior to July of 2024 that J Hill was not his manager.”
According to Offset, the terms of the original agreement provided Chase with a $10,000 producer fee and half of the 2 percent producer royalty, after deducting certain expenses classified as recording costs and recoupable advances.
In response to inquiries on Thursday (March 13) via direct message on Instagram, ChaseTheMoney remarked: “I’m not being sued. It’s the other way around lol.” He opted not to elaborate further and subsequently deleted those messages. After examining court records, Billboard was unable to find a filed lawsuit by Chase against Offset.
Representatives for Offset did not respond immediately to requests for comments on Thursday.
Legally, the lawsuit filed this week is categorized as a “declaratory judgment” action — indicating that Offset is not accusing Chase of any legal misconduct but is instead contending that Chase is unjustly accusing him of wrongdoing. Through this filing, Offset is requesting that a judge declare the original contract as valid and enforceable, affirming that he has fulfilled all its conditions.
Tuesday marks not the first occasion on which Offset has pursued a similar lawsuit concerning a music agreement.
In 2022, the rapper initiated a comparable declaratory judgment lawsuit against Quality Control Music, the record label instrumental in kickstarting his career with Migos. In that case, he argued the company was still attempting to retain control over his solo projects, despite the fact that he had “paid handsomely” to be released from his initial recording contract: “Offset now brings this action to assert his rights and to make it unequivocally clear that Offset, not Quality Control, is the owner of Offset’s music.”
The artist later dropped that lawsuit in August 2023.
- Source: NEWHD MEDIA
