Miami-based
Slip-N-Slide Records is $9.1 million richer, thanks to a federal court settlement
on Wednesday (March 14). The
Miami Herald reports that the label, which is home to Trick Daddy, Trina and
Rick Ross, will receive $2.3 million in compensatory damages and $6.8 million
in punitive damages from TVT Records, the nation’s largest independent record
label. The
jury decision marks the end of a two-year legal battle between Slip-N-Slide and
TVT over TVT’s blocking of Slip-N-Slide’s release of rapper Pitbull’s album Welcome
to the 305. The
dispute stemmed from claims that TVT acted inappropriately when they sent over
90 desist and cease letters addressed to Slip-N-Slide’s distributors and
wholesale buyers. In
those letters, the New York-based label, which claimed to own the rights to Pitbull’s
logo and trademark, expressed that the purchase of Welcome to the 305 would
break its contractual and trademark rights it owns relating to the popular Miami
rapper. Pitbull
was discovered by Jullian Andres Boothe, who recorded songs featured on Welcome
to the 305 in 2001 and 2002, pursuant to a contract with the rapper. Pitbull
later released two albums through TVT, M.I.A.M.I. Money
Is A Major Issue and El Mariel. Boothe
then brought Welcome to the 305 to Slip-N-Slide through his own company
Rude Bwoy Entertainment for distribution. Wednesday’s
decision in the 11-day trial was summed up in three words by Slip-N-Slide CEO
Ted Lucas as he told the Herald that “God is Good”.
“The jury
accepted that Slip-N-Slide did everything properly when we attempted to distribute
“Welcome to the 305” through our distributor,” he said.