Megan Thee Stallion has reached a settlement to end her legal war with her former record label 1501 Certified Entertainment.
After more than three years of litigation over a record deal she calls “unconscionable,” attorneys for 1501 announced Thursday that the two sides had “mutually reached a confidential settlement to resolve their legal differences.” Under the deal, Megan and 1501 will “amicably part ways.”
“Both Megan and 1501 are pleased to put this matter behind them and move forward with the next chapter of their respective businesses,” 1501 said. In the same statement, the label’s president Carl Crawford said that he and his company “wish Megan the very best in her life and career.”
Specific terms of the deal, including whether any money changed hands, were not disclosed.
The star rapper (real name Megan Pete) has been fighting with 1501 for more than three years, claiming the company duped the young artist into signing an unfair record deal in 2018 that was well-below industry standards. She says that when she signed a new management deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019, she got “real lawyers” who helped her see that the deal was “crazy.”
That core dispute has mushroomed into additional litigation. Megan filed the latest case in February 2022, claiming 1501 was refusing to count her 2021 Something for Thee Hotties as an “album” – a key distinction, since she must produce three albums under her record deal. 1501 quickly countersued, arguing that Thee Hotties contained just only 29 minutes of original material.
In August 2022, Megan filed a new complaint seeking more than $1 million in damages. The new filing says 1501 “systematically failed” to pay enough royalties and had “wrongfully allowed for excessive marketing and promotion charges.” Again, 1501 quickly struck back, calling the damages demand “baseless” and arguing that it was actually Megan who owes “millions of dollars.”
A judge ruled last December that the case would need to be decided by a jury trial, but any actual courthouse showdown had been repeatedly pushed back as the parties continued to battle in court over other issues, like whether Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez would need to sit for a deposition. In April, Megan leveled new allegations that 1501 draining its bank accounts in an effort to avoid paying eventual damages.
Last week, Megan hinted that some kind of settlement could be in the offing, saying during an Instagram live stream that “I have no label right now.”
