(AllHipHop News) According to multiple reports, Rita Ora has filed a lawsuit against her record label Roc Nation. The British singer is seeking to be let out of her contract, claiming the agreement with Jay Z’s company violates California law.
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Ora signed her deal when she was 18, but The Voice UK coach believes Roc Nation has now focused most of its attention on the sports management wing. The complaint also mention Jay’s other business endeavour Tidal.
“When Rita signed, Roc Nation and its senior executives were very involved with her as an artist,” the suit states. “As Roc Nation’s interests diversified, there were fewer resources available and the company suffered a revolving door of executives. Rita’s remaining supporters at the label left or moved on to other activities, to the point where she no longer had a relationship with anyone at the company.”
In addition, Ora claims Roc Nation’s transition from being distributed by Sony to being distributed by Universal has caused issues for her career. The suit also refers to Roc Nation as a “diminished” label with “only a handful of admittedly worthy heritage superstar artists.”
Ora is looking to use California’s “seven year rule” law which allows artists to break from their contracts after that time period. However, previous cases have ended with the record companies being given the ability to sue the artist for “lost profits” on uncompleted albums.
The 25-year-old “R.I.P.” performer’s deal reportedly requires her to release up to five albums with a “pay or play” provision. She has only released one album while at Roc Nation, 2012’s Ora.
The rest of Roc Nation’s current label division roster includes Jay Z, J. Cole, Jay Electronica, Rihanna, Willow Smith, Vic Mensa, DJ Mustard, and others. Since its launch in 2008, only Jay and Cole have released more than one album through the company. Meanwhile, Rita Ora has already been pulled from the list of label acts on the Roc Nation website.
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