Rapper Wiz Khalifa sues to void management and recording contract he signed as a teenager
Wiz Khalifa. Ovidiu Hrubaru / Shutterstock.com
Rapper Wiz Khalifa has sued his manager and former record company to void a contract he signed as a teenager, the Hollywood Reporter’s THR, Esq. blog wrote this week.
Khalifa—a stage name for Cameron Jibril Thomaz—who is now 28, says he was induced to sign a “360 deal” against his self-interests at the age of 16. Radio.com explains that a 360 deal gives the artist’s management and label a percentage of profits from all of the artist’s commercial activities. Khalifa is seeking $1 million from defendants Benjy Grinberg and Rostrum Records, plus disgorgement of royalties and other money obtained through alleged fraud.
According to Variety, the lawsuit alleges that Grinberg and Rostrum were “faithless fiduciaries” who induced Khalifa to enter into transactions that benefited them at Khalifa’s expense. Grinberg failed to disclose material information that would have helped Khalifa make an informed decision, the lawsuit says, and induced Khalifa to sign a contract that “reached for more than a decade into virtually every aspect” of Khalifa’s professional life.
In a statement, Grinberg said he was “very disappointed and surprised,” and that the claim was “an egregious lawsuit filled with inaccuracies.”
The case was filed in California state court, giving Khalifa an opportunity to use California’s “seven-year rule.” That rule, actually a part of the California Labor Code, says workers can’t be held to personal services contracts for more than seven years after service begins. It’s also called the De Havilland Rule after 1940s actress Olivia de Havilland, who sued successfully to be released from her contract with Warner Brothers after seven years.
Grinberg is president of Rostrum Records, which is currently based in Los Angeles but was founded in Pittsburgh. Grinberg signed Khalifa after hearing him on a mixtape of rising Pittsburgh musicians and put out his first record, Show and Prove, in 2006.
