Cordae Sued for $25 Million by Former Label Days Before 'Heavy Is the Crown' With Anderson .Paak Drops

 

Cordae and Anderson .Paak's joint album Heavy Is the Crown is supposed to land at midnight. The run-up has been anything but smooth, though, because the label that signed Cordae back in 2018 has taken him to federal court and wants $25 million.

MMMG Inc., a Florida-based company that does business as Art@War, filed suit on Thursday, Oct. 15, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Billboard was first to obtain the complaint. Cordae is named, and so are the three companies putting the album out: EMPIRE, Mass Appeal, and APESHIT, the label .Paak runs. MMMG's argument is simple. In its view, Cordae is still under an exclusive recording contract, which means it owns the music and nobody else gets to release it.

Here's the label's case. According to the complaint, as reported by Billboard, MMMG signed Cordae to an exclusive deal in 2018 and released his first two albums with Atlantic Records handling distribution. The label says it owns 100% of Cordae's recorded copyrights and also holds the rights to his merch, touring, and endorsements. In other words, it's describing a full 360 deal. Complex reports the signing as April 2018.

The language in the filing doesn't hold back. "MMMG has held up its end of the bargain, including by investing enormous amounts of time, money and other resources in Cordae's career," the complaint reads, per Billboard. "Rather than live up to his commitments, Cordae prefers to put his head in the sand and pretend that the agreement does not even exist. This lawsuit is the direct result of Cordae's mistreatment of MMMG."

The $25 million covers three separate claims. Complex and HITS both report the breakdown. The biggest is at least $15 million against Cordae for breach of contract, over merch, touring, and endorsement income the label says it never got its cut of. Next is at least $5 million for copyright infringement tied to "A Good Day," the album's lead single, which dropped Sept. 16 with a Dave Meyers-directed video. The last $5 million is a tortious interference claim against EMPIRE, Mass Appeal and APESHIT for releasing the music. MMMG is also asking for an injunction to stop recordings it says it owns from coming out. Complex reports the complaint warns that more infringement claims will follow if more tracks from the album are released.

This is where the story gets more complicated than "rapper ignores contract." Billboard reports that, according to MMMG, Cordae's lawyers believe the deal is no longer valid. On Sept. 2, 2025, Atlantic ended its distribution relationship with MMMG, Complex reports. The contract allegedly gave the label six months to find a new qualified distributor, and MMMG says it signed with Stem and notified Cordae's attorneys two days later. Cordae's side, as MMMG describes it in the filing, argues that Stem doesn't meet the contract's distribution requirements and that the arrangement isn't valid without an inducement letter from Cordae agreeing to its terms. MMMG says the contract "contains no requirement whatsoever" for that kind of letter. It calls Cordae's position "utterly lacking in merit" and says the challenge is being made in bad faith.

That's the whole fight in one question: did the switch to Stem keep the contract alive or not? If MMMG is right, the masters on Heavy Is the Crown belong to MMMG no matter whose logo is on the back. If Cordae's team is right, he's been a free agent since the Atlantic deal ended. Either way, a judge is going to decide it, not the timeline.

The label also says it tried to head this off before suing. According to the complaint, the album was announced on Aug. 19, and MMMG sent cease-and-desist letters to EMPIRE and Mass Appeal the next day, copying Cordae's lawyers. Billboard reports MMMG says Cordae "rebuffed" the demand and refused to halt the album. "Before filing this lawsuit, MMMG gave Defendants ample time to correct their behavior and fully compensate MMMG for the harm that they caused," the complaint reads. "They failed to do so. MMMG will now vindicate its rights, and recover its damages, in court."

Now for what we don't know, which is a lot. Cordae hasn't publicly responded to the lawsuit. When Billboard reached out on Oct. 16, reps for Cordae, APESHIT, Mass Appeal and EMPIRE didn't immediately return requests for comment. HITS reported that as of Monday, Oct. 19, no public response had surfaced from Cordae, .Paak, EMPIRE, or Mass Appeal, and no ruling on MMMG's injunction request had been reported. We haven't seen either one since. If that changes, we'll update this story.

It also matters that Anderson .Paak isn't personally named in the suit and isn't accused of any wrongdoing, according to Billboard. His label is a defendant, but he isn't.

For fans, the practical question is whether the album actually comes out Friday. As of the latest reporting from Complex and HITS, Heavy Is the Crown is still scheduled for Oct. 23 through APESHIT, Mass Appeal and EMPIRE. HITS reports Cordae's own Hi Level imprint is involved too. This is the first full project from a pairing that goes back to "RNP" in 2019, and "A Good Day," which HITS describes as a flip of Bill Withers' "Lovely Day," has had fans hyped since September.

There's a bigger lesson here, too. Cordae came up as one of the most celebrated young lyricists of his class, and now he's walking into release week with a label claiming it owns his masters, his merch table and his tour money. Whatever happens in court, this case is a reminder of how hard the fine print on a 360 deal can hit, years after the ink dries.

We'll keep watching the docket. For now, it's simple: the album is still due at midnight, the lawsuit is still pending, and Cordae hasn't said a word about it publicly.