Cash Money Records rapper Lil Wayne is the focus of a new lawsuit filed by his former manager.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday (April 5) in U.S. District Court in Miami, Lil Wayne (born Dwayne Carter) told White Tides Entertainment
president Melissa Philipian last December that he was firing her after he became angry over the quality of a hotel room booked for him.
As a result, the 23-year-old rapper refused to pay $500,000 in back commissions, according to Philipian’s lawyer Richard Wolfe, who added
that Lil Wayne also owes White Tides 15 percent of his earnings over the next two years under a three-year contract signed in June 2005.
“We’re probably looking at damages in excess of $1 million,” Wolfe told the Miami Herald. “Sometimes artists make it big, and they want to forget about the people who helped them get there.”
The lawsuit further stated that Lil Wayne’s contract with White Tides only allows him to end the agreement in writing after one-year of
service for specified contract breaches.
The company booked at least 21 concerts for the rapper as well as arranged product and publicity deals and organized guest performances on other artists’ videos and albums.
The quality of a hotel room does not qualify as a reason to end the contract, so Lil Wayne is liable to pay White Tides for the next two years, Wolfe said.
News of the lawsuit comes as Lil Wayne enjoys the success of his latest album, Tha Carter, II.
Since debuting at number two on Billboard’s Top
100 albums chart in December, the album has gone platinum.
The rapper, who serves as head of Cash Money and Young Money Entertainment, is currently studying psychology at the University of Houston this
semester, according to his website.
Lil Wayne and his lawyer, Ron Sweeney, could not be reached for comment Thursday (April 6).