She was also granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the label from blocking her from releasing new music.

UPDATE 3/3/2020: On March 2, Megan Thee Stallion filed a lawsuit against 1501 Certified Entertainment and its CEO Carl Crawford seeking termination of her contract, as first reported by TMZ and then confirmed by Pitchfork.

A district court judge in Harris County, Texas also granted the rapper a temporary restraining order to prevent the label from blocking her from releasing “new records” on Friday, March 6. The restraining order also reportedly prevents 1501 from threatening her on social media. She has since seemingly confirmed that new music will be dropping this week:

Megan is suing for at least $1 million in damages and is asking for her contract—which allegedly only included a $10,000 advance—to be declared null or terminated. The lawsuit claims the contract gives 60 percent of her recording income to 1501, with the rest allocated to Megan. However, she has to use that portion of the revenue to pay featured artists, mixers, remixers, and engineers.

According to Pitchfork, the lawsuit further alleges that the contract gives 50 percent of her publishing, 30 percent of her touring income, 30 percent of her merchandising, control of all merchandising rights, and a cut of what’s called her “passive income" (sponsorships and endorsement deals) to 1501 and Crawford. The suit claims that 1501 hasn’t accounted for the revenue it has earned “despite repeated requests,” and added that the information from the label has been “purposefully and deceptively vague.”

In addition, the lawsuit claims the label didn’t take “basic, necessary steps” steps like registering her copyrights and trademarks, allowing “a third party with no intellectual property ownership in [Megan’s] assets” to register her trademarks in their name.

Megan filed a statement in support of the lawsuit, citing “direct and veiled threats” from Crawford and Rap-A-Lot Records founder J. Prince. According to the rapper, Crawford has been using his relationship with Prince to intimidate people in the industry.

“Prince is notorious in the industry for strong-armed intimidation tactics, and the comment was taken as a physical threat of harm,” she said, about Crawford pressuring a producer to hand over beats.

In support, “Big Ole Freak” producer LilJuMadeDaBeat also shared a statement alleging he was threatened by Crawford.

Megan also claimed a recently-surfaced mugshot from when she was 19 was “clearly leaked by someone in the 1501 camp” and “designed to harm me and my career.”

See the original story below.

After building up a local following, Megan Thee Stallion signed to Houston indie label 1501 Certified Entertainment in early 2018. Although the rapper entered into an agreement with 300 Entertainment later that year, her original deal appears to remain intact. Over the weekend, Megan claimed that 1501 is blocking her from releasing new music after she reached out to renegotiate her contract.

According to Megan, her management at Roc Nation flagged “verbiage” in her 1501 deal that she now wants to rework:

She detailed the situation in an Instagram Live session captured by Twitter user yoyotrav. “When I got with Roc Nation, I got management, real management. I got real lawyers, and they was like, ‘Do you know that this is in your contract?’” Megan explained. “I was like, ‘Oh, damn, that’s crazy. No, I didn’t know.’ So I’m not mad at 1501. I wasn’t upset. Because I’m thinking in my head, ‘Oh well, everybody cool. We all family… Let me just ask them n*ggas to renegotiate my contract.’”

As soon as she asked 1501 to renegotiate her deal, however, the label allegedly told her that she can’t release any new music:

I wasn’t trying to leave the label, wasn’t trying to not give nobody money that they feel like they entitled to. I just want to renegotiate some sh*t… I’m not a person that like confrontation. I’m not a person that’s a b*tch. I work with everybody, and I’m nice, and I’m real family-oriented. But n*ggas gon’ be n*ggas, and they gon’ be greedy, and they gon’ be shady. And I see the sh*t that that camp be saying about me, and I be like damn. Well, since, you got so much to say, why you just won’t tell ‘em why you mad? You mad because I don’t want to roll over and bow down like a little b*tch, and you don’t want to renegotiate my contract.

Megan closed out the session with advice for new artists. “Please, it might seem good, it might sound good, but you definitely got to read,” she said. “Don’t sign nothing without no real lawyer, and make sure your lawyers is not the lawyers of your label lawyers. Get your own lawyer with they own opinion.”

The CEO of 1501 is former Major League baseball player Carl Crawford. In a November 2019 interview with Off the Porch, he spoke about being caught off-guard by Megan’s management deal with Roc Nation. Crawford also mentioned she was still signed to his label.

“For whatever reason, I wasn’t kept in tuned about it,” Crawford said. "It doesn’t affect me as a label at all. She’s still signed to us. She’s able to have a manager to do stuff with her and stuff like that. It’s no big deal. She’s still signed to 1501 so I just deal with that part.”

Crawford recently shared an Instagram photo taken with Rap-A-Lot Records founder J. Prince. In the caption, he appears to allude to the situation.

“At a time when loyalty is at an all time low it’s nice to be link with [J. Prince] who is steady teaching me how to move in this cutthroat industry 💯,” Crawford wrote. “And I know that terrifies some especially the ones who double cross me ✊🏾🤘🏾 #Paybacksabitch #1501 #mobties”

Fellow Roc Nation management signee Lil Uzi Vert has undergone issues with his own label, Generation Now. Nearly a year after inking the new management deal, his long-awaited second studio album, Eternal Atake, doesn’t have a firm release date—although he has dropped a handful of singles including yesterday’s “That Way.”

As for Megan, she released her latest single, “B.I.T.C.H.,” in late January. She recently told Rolling Stone that she is eyeing an early May release date for her next project, Suga. It remains to be seen whether the rapper works out her label issues before then.

It’s also worth noting that 300 Entertainment has had its own issues with artists, most notably Young Thug and Migos. The latter group left the label in 2015 over money issues, giving over full control over their career to Quality Control.

Genius previously broke down the rise of Megan Thee Stallion:

Watch Megan’s Instagram Live session above, and catch up on all the lyrics to her 2019 project, Fever on Genius now.