Maybe one reason that the Young Money crew have so much money at such a young age is that they don't pay their producers the royalties they deserve. Label head Lil Wayne recently faced two separate royalties lawsuits over unpaid percentages from "A Milli" and "Lollipop." Now, wunderkind Drake is facing similar scrutiny over his smash hit "Best I Ever Had."
According to HipHopDX, DJ Absolut has filed a lawsuit related to the Canadian rap superstar, stating that he is owed profits from the track. The song, which originally appeared on Drake's career-making So Far Gone mixtape, earned the rapper two Grammy nods and a Juno nomination.
Absolut didn't file a lawsuit against Drake, however. Instead, he is taking Kia Shine to court. When the single was first created in 2008, Shine took credit for production and allegedly took a beat from Absolut without asking. Shine, who claims to have 25 percent ownership of the song, agreed to pay 20 percent of his proceeds from the beat to Absolut in compensation.
Here's where it gets really confusing: Drake insists that Shine had nothing to do with the track's original production. In a post on his blog last September, Drake clarified the matter, saying, "There have been questions posed to me the last few days about the writing of 'Best I Ever Had' and I figured I'd take the time to clear the air directly. I have never met Kia Shine or worked with him. I wrote the entire composition in Toronto and I borrowed one line from a Lil Wayne song that he produced the BEAT for. The claims of 25 percent ownership are false and for a artist to brag about splits on a song is distasteful to begin with."
While we're not exactly experts on who owns what, particularly in the world of hip-hop, it looks like Kia Shine might be running a Madoff-style pyramid scheme off of a track that he had nothing to do with from the beginning.
According to HipHopDX, DJ Absolut has filed a lawsuit related to the Canadian rap superstar, stating that he is owed profits from the track. The song, which originally appeared on Drake's career-making So Far Gone mixtape, earned the rapper two Grammy nods and a Juno nomination.
Absolut didn't file a lawsuit against Drake, however. Instead, he is taking Kia Shine to court. When the single was first created in 2008, Shine took credit for production and allegedly took a beat from Absolut without asking. Shine, who claims to have 25 percent ownership of the song, agreed to pay 20 percent of his proceeds from the beat to Absolut in compensation.
Here's where it gets really confusing: Drake insists that Shine had nothing to do with the track's original production. In a post on his blog last September, Drake clarified the matter, saying, "There have been questions posed to me the last few days about the writing of 'Best I Ever Had' and I figured I'd take the time to clear the air directly. I have never met Kia Shine or worked with him. I wrote the entire composition in Toronto and I borrowed one line from a Lil Wayne song that he produced the BEAT for. The claims of 25 percent ownership are false and for a artist to brag about splits on a song is distasteful to begin with."
While we're not exactly experts on who owns what, particularly in the world of hip-hop, it looks like Kia Shine might be running a Madoff-style pyramid scheme off of a track that he had nothing to do with from the beginning.
