It's almost a given. An artist scores a major hit that sells millions of records and a short time later is sued by someone either claiming he or she actually wrote the song or worked on it and didn't get a fair slice of the pie.
Cue the lawsuit from the producer Darius Harrison (a.k.a. Deezle), who has filed a court action against Young Money Entertainment and Cash Money Records, claiming that he has not gotten his paper from the sales of Lil Wayne's smash hit "Lollipop" and the album it was featured on, Tha Carter III.
According to TMZ, the $20 million lawsuit claims that Deezle, who says he produced "Whip It," "Prostitute 2," "Action," "Mrs. Officer" and "Let the Beat Build" as well as "Lollipop," is entitled to his cut of royalties on the reported $70 million the album has grossed on sales of six million copies.
"Lollipop" hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and won a Grammy for Best Rap Song in 2009. Harrison previously sued Wayne for $2.5 million over what he claimed were unpaid royalties from the sales of "Mrs. Officer."
The liner notes to Carter list Harrison as a co-producer along with Jim Jonsin on "Lollipop" and as the recording engineer on most of the other songs on the disc. A spokesperson for Wayne and Young Money/ Cash Money could not be reached for comment at press time on the lawsuit.
In the meantime, Wayne has been working on putting the latest member of his crew into the spotlight: Lil Twist.
"That's where I get my little oomph from, when I bring my whole clique out there, and I want them to be heard," Wayne told last week. "I remember when [Bad Boy] had Total, Biggie, Ma$e, Junior Mafia, all of them other people. Then you think of the Roc. We're more so like the Roc. 'Cause Jay always had artists the world didn't know, but he put them on the proper song and everybody knows the song. But this time around, I want you to know the song, I want you to know the person, I want you to know us. And it's no secret about it, I got the toughest team in the game right now and later."