Chocolate City Record Label and its Chief Executive Officer, Jude “M.I” Abaga have sued American rap artiste, Nas and Mass Appeal Records’ Ronnie Goodman over an alleged breach of agreement.
The record label and M.I accused Nas, born Nasir Jones, of not keeping his end of a bargain in a $50,000 agreement to collaborate with Abaga on a song titled ‘Man’.
The American rapper has failed to deliver on his verse, years after payment was made, the court document revealed. Thus the record label claimed to have suffered “loss and damage” as the Nigerian rapper was unable to deliver the song to his fans as proposed.
In the law suite, Chocolate City is demanding a million dollars in damages for breach of contract as well as fifty thousand dollars for unjust enrichment.
The lawsuit was filed by the label’s attorney, KC Okoli, in a New York supreme court.
The proposed song was to be released on MI’s ‘The Chairman’ album.
Nas was to mention “M.I, Chocolate City, Nigeria, Queens, New York, Mandela, Trayvon Martin, and the struggles of Africans and African Americans”.
The suit read: “On or about September 4, 2013, the defendants delivered by email, the first version of an audio track dubbed the possible verse to CCL in Lagos, Nigeria. ‘
“The verse that was delivered as aforesaid did not contain any of the agreed-upon names, phrases and facts; moreover, it did not contain anything to indicate that same was a collaboration between NAS and M.l.
“Dissatisfied with the lyrical content and quality of the aforesaid ostensible recording by NAS, CCL insisted that specific language be used by NAS in the verse he was working on.
“Defendants agreed to make the required changes but explained that there would be some delay because NAS would be unavailable for several weeks due to prior business commitments.
“Ultimately, defendants did not make the required changes to comport with the agreement of the parties at the outset.
“Up to the present time, neither the edited verse nor the master recording has been delivered by the defendants to CCL.”
See court papers below.
