Seems like sitting at No. 1 on the charts for seven weeks straight comes with complications — one day, you're being exposed for disseminating fake stories and lying on Dolly Parton's good name, the next, it's being revealed that you and your former label are countersuing each other.
According to Billboard, Shaboozey — real name Collins Obinna Chibueze — filed a lawsuit against Warner Chappell and his former label Kreshendo Entertainment last Wednesday, August 21. In the suit, Shaboozey claims that Warner was preventing him from leaving a publishing administration deal with Kreshendo, despite terminating his publishing deal with the label back in 2019.
On Friday, August 23, Kreshendo countersued Shaboozey, claiming to retain key rights to his music after he exited. Instead of staying true to that alleged agreement, he "elected a strategy of fraud and misrepresentation to deprive plaintiffs of their contractual rights."
"Notably, Shaboozey had no issue with any of these terms for years," reads a statement from Kreshendo's attorneys. "It was only after he recently released the 'Bar Song,' which has become a huge hit, that he has taken sudden issue with the terms he expressly agreed to." Kreshendo claims that one of its stipulations was a 50 percent stake in all of Chibueze's compositions, plus the right to be paid a percentage of profits from his masters.
Crescendo's complaint lays it out like so: "Before Shaboozey became the well-known artist he is today, he was an unknown artist that plaintiffs believed in, and they agreed to invest their time and money to help him develop and reach success in the music industry."
As if you're not already sick of it, check out "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" below.