The hip-hop trio says it was “cheated out of millions of dollars” through excessive commissions and bad deals.
Migos are suing their longtime talent lawyer for allegedly taking “excessive fees” without a proper written agreement and failing to disclose conflicts of interest arising from his representation of their label.
Quavious Marshall (Quavo), Kiari Cephus (Offset) and Kirsnick Ball (Takeoff) have sued Damien Granderson along with his current firm, Granderson Des Rochers, and his previous one, Davis Shapiro, alleging they were “robbed and cheated out of millions of dollars” the people they trusted to look out for their best interests.
“Granderson was working with Migos since the group’s early days, including on the 2014 deal to have 300 Entertainment distribute Migos’ debut album, Yung Rich Nation,” writes attorney Bryan Freedman in the complaint. “At that time, the group’s members were in their late teens and early twenties, and had nothing more than a high school education.”
Freedman argues Granderson saw them as “easy targets” and coaxed them into a one-sided deal for the benefit of a higher-priority client, Quality Control Music. (QCM had signed the Migos to a recording agreement in 2013.) The attorney failed to disclose the conflict, according to the suit, and instigated a legal dispute with 300 to move the group to Capitol Records.
“Granderson later exacerbated the harm he caused to Migos by negotiating a 2018 amendment to the exclusive label agreement between QCM and Capitol Records,” writes Freedman. “That amendment triggered an extension of the exclusive recording agreement between QCM and Migos, which Granderson knew to contain terms that were unconscionable for Migos.”
Those terms, according to the suit, include a clause that would require the Migos to render services directly to Capitol if the band ended its relationship with QCM and it was drafted in a way that financially disincentivized it from doing so. Writes Freedman, “Granderson effectively prevented his other client — Migos — from ever being free of paying excessive compensation to QCM, from ever being signed to any other record label, and from ever obtaining negotiating leverage to secure reasonable terms in connection with the distribution of its musical recordings.”
The Migos also allege that Granderson made mistakes in drafting agreements and practiced law without a California license five years after moving to Los Angeles (Davis Shapiro, his employer before he launched his own firm in 2019, previously had offices in both New York and L.A.)
The band is suing for professional malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, violation of California Business & Professions Code 6147 and 6148 (which require contingency fee agreements to be made in writing), unfair competition and unjust enrichment. They’re seeking a declaration that the 5% contingent fee agreement is invalid as well as restitution and punitive damages.
Granderson, whose firm also reps Cardi B, Kanye West and A$AP Rocky, has not yet responded to a request for comment on the complaint.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.