UPDATED July 15, 7:40 p.m. ET: Quality Control CEO Pierre "Pee" Thomas has responded to Migos' lawsuit in a lengthy post to Instagram and said he "will not stand by and let Quality Control Music’s reputation and everything we have built and sacrificed be tarnished by allegations of unfair and unjust business practices."
"It is unfortunate that the same people that we have worked hard for, provided opportunities for, and championed for are now alleging that we have participated in any kind of immoral or unfair business practices or took advantage of them and their careers, especially while we are dealing with the death of an artist on our label that was dear to us," Pee began. "We have always practiced honest business and complete transparency from the beginning when we started Quality Control Music."
You can read his full message below via IG.
See original post below.
Atlanta’s own Migos filed a complaint on Wednesday against Damien Granderson, their attorney since 2013, for malpractice.
According to a report from Variety, the rap trio is claiming that Granderson “abused his position of trust as Migos’ fiduciary from the moment he was retained as Migos’ lawyer” and “cheated [the group] out of millions of dollars.”
The complaint alleges malpractice and unjust enrichment in connection with Granderson’s “glaring conflicts of interest” as both Migos’ attorney and the attorney for the group’s label Quality Control Music. Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff are now seeking millions in damages.
Granderson’s negotiation of record deals with both 300 Entertainment and Capitol Music Group/Quality Control allegedly resulted in Migos getting the short end of these arrangements. As an attorney for Quality Control Music, the suit alleges that Granderson hid the extent to which QCM would profit disproportionately from their deal with Capitol. The deal “would allow Capitol to distribute all albums that QCM produced and that QCM was actually profiting far more handsomely than was apparent from the face of the documents that Granderson personally presented to Migos for immediate execution,” the complaint reads.
Per Variety, the group claims Granderson “failed to disclose both the complete nature of his relationship with QCM and the complete nature of the conflict in representing both QCM and Migos.” The attorney also allegedly advised the group to accept “terms that were unconscionable for Migos” in a 2018 amendment to their deal with Capitol.
It’s unclear how this suit might affect Migos’ relationship with their current label or the extent to which Coach K and Pee, the label's founders, were aware of these issues. The lawsuit calls terms of the record deal Granderson negotiated between his clients were “extremely unreasonable,” giving QCM “the right to far-above-industry-norm compensation even though QCM was not required to perform any work at all.”
Migos is currently with QCM under these “unconscionable" terms, and while there’s no reports yet of them trying to leave the label, if their suit is successful it may call into question the validity of the deal altogether. Perhaps this is one of the reasons fans have been waiting so long for Migos’ fourth album Culture III.
