Entertainer’s Estate, Rapper Head to Court

Prince’s estate files lawsuit against Jay Z.

As speculation mounts over how Prince’s estate will pay what is expected to be a sizeable estate bill, the estate has begun a legal fight against a rapper’s company, according to TMZ in “Prince to Jay Z No Free Rides in My Little Red Corvette … Record Label Sues.”

It had been assumed that one way to meet their financial obligations would be for the estate to sell the rights to Prince’s unreleased recordings. Rapper Jay Z had offered a reported $40 million for those rights. However, the estate turned that offer down and came up with a different answer.

Recently, there was speculation that it could raise money by suing Jay Z as it hinted it might do after rejecting Jay Z’s offer.

Prince’s record label has now filed a lawsuit against Jay Z’s company Roc Nation.

The lawsuit alleges that prior to his death, Prince had negotiated a deal with Jay Z to allow Jay Z to stream Prince’s last album on the Tidal service, which Jay Z owns through Roc Nation. However, instead of just streaming that album, Jay Z assumed that he had permission to stream all of Prince’s music and in June of this year began streaming all of Prince’s best-known songs.

The lawsuit does not state the amount of damages that the record label is seeking, but it is likely to be extremely high given the popularity of Prince’s work.

Reference: TMZ (Nov. 15, 2016) “Prince to Jay Z No Free Rides in My Little Red Corvette … Record Label Sues.”