(AllHipHop News) In an article AllHipHop printed last month on Max B’s new clothing line, it was stated that his former label, Amalgam Digital, had a court order to shut down any unauthorized Max B clothing lines.
Despite clearing the air in 2013, after Max’s new clothing line surfaced in 2016, conflicting reports again surfaced regarding the clothing line.
Max B’s former manager and founder of Amalgam Digital, Anyextee (pronounced Next) said any unauthorized clothing lines were stopped with a cease and desist order (not a court order) back in 2013.
In doing so, Amalgam Digital hoped to properly monetize Max B’s name and likeness, although last year the company sold off Max’s catalog and management contract honoring Max B and his mother’s wishes.
“I sold Amalgam Digital’s assets last year, I sold the company off, and prior to that Phase One Network purchased Max B’s catalog.” Anyextee told AllHipHip in an exclusive interview. “I was Max B’s manager for this entire tenor since his split with Jim Jones. I had been Max B’s management in addition to signing him to Amalgam Digital.”
Part of the deal in selling the rights of Max’s catalog and management contract to Phase One, was that Max’s legal fees would be covered to help free him from prison.
“Last year with Max B and his mom’s consent, it’s actually a move that they wanted to make, they wanted to do this deal, we sold the assets.” he said. “I was cool with it as long as his mom and Max B were cool with it.”
“They [Phase One] also proposed to put more legal funds towards his situation in addition to buying out the catalog managing everything going forward. It seemed like a good play and everyone seemed happy. I’m pretty sure everyone is still cool with the situation, but the legal thing has taken some time.”
Despite the contractual rights owned by Amalgam and Phase One, over the years people have bootlegged Max B clothing stealing the rights to Max B’s brand and likeness outside of direct partnerships with Max B.
“People in the street bootlegged his music and his clothing and we kind of let it go for a while, we told Max about it and he wasn’t getting paid on any of this stuff. No one’s ever given Max B money despite all the claims that Max B was involved. Nobody ever put a dime in his pocket for Max B apparel. With the exception of us, Amalgam Digital, and it wasn’t that much being sold.”
“We put out the first Max B t-shirt and we put out the Free Max B t-shirts, and again we sold a little bit, but not a lot. Everything else, except for one clothing line Deadline Ltd, was unofficial. For the record that clothing line ‘CKDOUT’ that Dame [Grease] was involved with was unofficial. Max was not on board. When I contacted Max and his Mom they hadn’t heard anything about it and they weren’t getting paid, and furthermore we hadn’t signed off on it. It had to run through us if it was official.”
“We are not the evil empire over here trying to stop Max B’s clothing line, it’s really quite the opposite, we are trying to get Max B paid so that clothing brands that are using his name and likeness go through the proper avenues so that Max B can actually get paid instead of his name being used without him ever seeing a dime.”
Check out the images of Max B wearing the old Amalgam Digital gear below in exclusive images obtained from Amalgam Digital:
me.” And interspersed between these thoughts is the host presenting the accolade for the Detroit Hip-Hop Recognition Award. “From the days of the Hip-Hop Shop to the days of multi-platinum record sales, you’ll see this guy on MTV Wednesday night, then you’ll catch him at St. Andrew’s Hall on Friday night hosting a battle. He has been around the world, and still finds time to give back to the city. That being said, it’s a pleasure and an honor to present the first annual Hip-Hop Recognition Award to none other than my man, Big Proof!”