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Topics: US News, Music, Celebrity, Megan Thee Stallion
Tom Wood
Megan Thee Stallion has been granted a restraining order against her own record label ahead of the American Music Awards.
The rapper from Houston – real name Megan Pete – has been granted the court order against 1501 Certified Entertainment because they’ve allegedly attempted to ‘interfere’ with her control over her songs before the awards.
She has also been granted a restraining order against distributor 300 Entertainment as well, according to reports from Billboard.
So, that document states that the record label ‘unlawfully’ tried to ‘block or interfere with Pete exploiting, licensing, or publishing her music’ in the run-up to the awards ceremony this weekend on Sunday 20 November.
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Megan filed the order – or at least her lawyers did – in Harris County District Court in Texas, who claimed that the musician ‘provided evidence’ that was sufficient enough for them to prove that the companies ‘recently engaged and will continue to engage in threatening and retaliatory behaviour that will irreparably harm’ her career.
We don’t know exactly what that behaviour is or was, but the court said they’d filed what is known as an ‘ex parte’ restraining order.
That means that they’ve decided to grant the order with only the input of one party in mind, which is to say, they’ve heard Megan’s case and decided to grant it without consulting the companies.
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Obviously, there will most likely be more to come from this legal battle, as the two entertainment companies will have to have their say at some point.
The restraining order also states that the voting for the AMAs – which closed on 14 November at midnight – played a part in the ruling of the court, as Megan Thee Stallion ‘will suffer irreparable harm if her music cannot be used in conjunction with her promotion for the AMAs’.
She has been nominated for the Favourite Female Hip-Hop Artist award at the ceremony this weekend, so you can see where they might be coming from on that front.
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The order itself states that 1501, 300, and any one acting ‘in concert or participation’ with those two companies are prohibited from ‘preventing or blocking the use and exploitation’ of Megan’s tunes in promotional stuff for the AMAs, which includes – but is not limited to – ‘threatening or otherwise attempting to intimidate or coerce’ third parties who wish to use the music.
There will be another hearing on 22 November on the ongoing request for a restraining order.
As we’ve mentioned, we certainly haven’t heard the last of this saga just yet.
Megan has been involved in legal battles with the label before now, having filed a suit against them earlier in the year claiming that they were trying to keep her trapped in a contract by refusing to accept her Something For Thee Hotties compilation as an album.
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1501 denied this allegation, claiming that the contract gave them say-so on what is and isn’t an album under the terms of the contract.
Megan has also demanded $1 million in damages and asked for the Texas court to end her contract officially.
Last year, she also took the label to court again arguing that they were stopping her releasing a remix of ‘Butter’ by BTS.
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The court found in her favour and she was allowed to release it.
UNILAD has contacted 1501 Entertainment, 300 Entertainment and representatives of Megan Thee Stallion for a comment.