Megan Thee Stallion is entering her independent era.
Amid her legal battle with label 1501 Certified Entertainment, Megan Thee Stallion went on Instagram Live Thursday and revealed that she is not currently signed to any label and is self-funding her upcoming music project.
“This part of my album is definitely very much funded by Megan Thee Stallion because we’re trying to get off… Y’all know what’s the tea. But I have no label right now,” she said. “We’re doing everything funded straight out of Megan Thee Stallion’s pockets.”
“The budget is coming from me. Motherfucking Hot Girl Productions! The next shit y’all about to see is all straight from Megan Thee Stallion’s brain, Megan Thee Stallion’s wallet,” she added. “We in my pockets, hotties, so let’s do our big one.”
The singer said she’s still looking for a new label but that she’s “excited” to be dropping music on her own. “I don’t want to sign to a new label right now because I just want to do it myself.”
In a complaint filed last August, Megan asked a Harris County judge to declare that Traumazine, her new album released Aug. 12, along with Something for Thee Hotties “both constitute an ‘album’ as defined in the parties’ recording agreement,’ to satisfy the agreements of her contract with 1501. She also asked for at least $1 million in damages, upping the ante after her first lawsuit asked for non-monetary damage.
According to Pete, she’s the victim of a “tortured” relationship with 1501 that was first outlined in an initial legal battle with 1501 dating back to March 2020. She’s been very public about her efforts to remove herself from her “unconscionable” contract signed with the independent label owned by ex-professional baseball player Carl Crawford.
In filings reviewed by Rolling Stone, the label argued that the relationship started to sour when Pete hired Roc Nation as her management firm in September 2019. Pete says Roc Nation simply helped her understand for the first time that her 1501 contract was not in keeping with industry norms. Instead of the standard 50-50 split of recording profits, Pete’s initial deal gave the label 60 percent of her recording income – with payments to outside parties such as producers coming out of her paycheck. The initial contract also gave the label a 30 percent chunk of her touring and merchandising profits.
“When I got with Roc Nation, I got management – real management – and real lawyers,” Pete said in a March 2020 video posted on Twitter. “They were like, ‘Do you know that this is in your contract?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, damn, that’s crazy. No, I didn’t know.’”