Drake is going to sue Canadian Money Entertainment for releasing unauthorized materials from his mixtape 'So Far Gone'.
- Jun 6, 2009
AceShowbiz - Drake decides to take legal action against a label named Canadian Money Entertainment, accusing them for delivering an unauthorized album titled "The Girls Love Drake". His management team have requested several giant digital retailers, including iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody, to remove the compilation set listing songs off his mixtape "So Far Gone" from their sites.
"This is a straight bootleg, a scandal. We are behind promoting records at radio, but haven't sold it," Drake's manager Al Branch tells Billboard. "iTunes' position is that they are a store and they stock everything. They have a waiver and as long as people sign it and are responsible for the product they submit, then they go for it."
As of the Canadian label's camp, its founder Peter Greenwood comes out with defensive statement. He says the company have been releasing mixtapes for unsigned artists since 2003 and "The Girls Love Drake" release was never meant to be ill-intended. He explains, "'The Girls Love Drake' was just a combination of new and old songs that we had been promoting on the underground scene for the last six months and so we wanted to get more exposure for it on the net. Breaking him in the states along with other Toronto artists has always been our goal. Drake is our hometown hero."
However, there is one issue which Greenwood apparently wasn't aware of. There are many samples, some of which are from David Banner, Goapele and Colun Munroe, in Drake's mixtape which haven't been cleared. And of that matter, Branch is concerned about the possibly of the rapper being sued when the songs are outed though the deal is still incomplete.
"There were tracks produced for other artists that Drake rapped over that were not cleared. While some songs were original, this was meant to be an underground project and not a major release," Branch says. "We tried to get the project out through a new platform on the digital level, but we were stopped before we could get started because mixtapes are not allowed on that level."
In related news, sources reveal that there are at least three major labels, including Universal Motown and Atlantic Records, which are involved in "one of the biggest bidding wars ever" to get Drake signed up to their company. One of the labels reportedly have offered $2 million dollars to persuade the young artist to join them.
