A Texas judge granted the Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion a temporary restraining order against her label, 1501 Entertainment, on Monday, according to Billboard. Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, recently filed suit against 1501 Entertainment, alleging that the contract she had signed with the label when she was 20 was “not only entirely unconscionable, but ridiculously so,” putting the label in a position to “literally do nothing, while at the same time taking for themselves the vast majority of Pete’s income from all sources.”
Pete signed a new management deal with Roc Nation in September following a string of radio hits, from “Big Ole Freak” to “Cash Shit” to “Hot Girl Summer.” In a video posted to Instagram over the weekend, the rapper said that Roc Nation initially alerted her to some of the unsavory aspects of her original contract. The rapper claimed that 1501 Entertainment gets to take home 60 percent of her recording income, 30 percent of her touring income, and 30 percent of the money she makes off merchandise.
“I was like 20, and I didn’t know everything that was in that contract,” Pete explained. “So when I got with Roc Nation, I got management — real management — and real lawyers. They were like, ‘Do you know that this is in your contract?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, damn, that’s crazy — no, I didn’t know.’ “
The rapper said that when she attempted to renegotiate her contract — a fairly standard move after an artist has a run of hits — “it all went bad.” “It all went left,” she continued. “Now they tellin’ a bitch she can’t drop no music.” On Sunday, she started tweeting “#FREEMEG” and “#FREETHEESTALLION.”
The court initially sided with Pete and Roc Nation. A judge demanded that 1501 Entertainment “do nothing to prevent the release, distribution, and sale of Pete’s new records.” In addition, the judge ordered the label “to refrain from threatening or posting any threatening any retaliatory social media posts or threats against Pete” and “to not intentionally falsify, alter, spoil, hide, transfer, or otherwise destroy any documents, evidence or recordings related to Pete in any way.”
“We are very happy the court granted our [temporary restraining order] application and thrilled that the world should be able to now hear Megan’s new music on March 6th,” said Richard Busch, who is Pete’s attorney, in a statement. “We will now proceed with the other claims set forth in the petition.”
A judge will decide whether to end or extend the temporary restraining order March 13th. Megan Thee Stallion recently told Rolling Stone that she hopes to release a new album, Suga, on May 2nd.
