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Miami rapper Rick

Ross has been hit with a lawsuit claiming he owes his manager more than $1 million

dollars for services rendered over a three year period that produced Ross’ hit

album Port of Miami. Philadelphia

based Respect Management, owned by attorney Kevon Glickman, filed the lawsuit

yesterday (Apr. 10) in the United States District Court of Pennsylvania.The

lawsuit claims that Ross, born William Roberts, breached the three-year management

agreement that he signed in 2004 by attempting to divert commissions due to Respect

Management to his co-manager, Elric "E-Class" Prince.According

to the lawsuit, Ross signed with Respect Management in 2004. Soon

afterwards, Ross landed a major label deal with Def Jam, which released the six-foot

four, 300 pound rapper’s debut Port of Miami.The

album moved over 800,000 copies based on the hit singles "Hustlin’"

and "Push It.” Glickman

claims that while Ross was his client, Ross’ earnings went from $5,000 to more

than $1 million in the three year span, yet Ross failed to compensate Respect

Management for its management services, in excess of $1 million dollars. The

lawsuit claims that through the use of "physical" and "mental"

intimidation, "Roberts has demanded that management commissions due on his

record and publishing contracts be paid by Def Jam and Sony to Elric "E-Class"

Prince rather than to Respect as required by the agreement."In

addition to acting as Ross’ co-manager, Elric "E-Class" Prince is also

the head of Miami based record label Poe Boy Entertainment.According

to Glickman, he was threatened in a "series of phone calls, meetings, emails,

text messages and other methods" in such a manner that he "would be

subjected to severe and bodily harm and/or loss of his life if he did not consent

to their demands.""The

coercion by Roberts and Prince consisted of explicit and implicit threats and

intimidation of Glickman by indicating that they were from the streets of Miami,

knew how to handle themselves and had known and associated with persons engaged

in criminal conduct in the Gang life of Miami and other cities," Glickman’s

complaint reads. The

lawsuit also claims that Ross continues to perform and earn a substantial amount

of income and has failed to compensate Respect Management the 20% of gross earnings

called for in the contract.Additionally,

Respect Management is seeking an injunction to prevent Ross from receiving several

advances from Slip-N-Slide Records, Def Jam and Sony Publishing.