Summer Walker tried to walk away from Interscope, and the label answered with a $50 million lawsuit. The suit, filed Friday in Los Angeles, says she still owes two albums and an EP.
Walker signed with Interscope and LVRN back in 2017. In August she invoked California’s seven-year rule, a law that lets artists exit personal-service deals after seven years, and told the label she was done as of August 27. The label sued before a 45-day window to file such claims closed.
Here is the part with everybody talking. Her deal called for five albums, but her early projects “Last Day of Summer” and “CLEAR” were filed as pre-album projects that did not count. She has since delivered three proper albums, “Over It,” “Still Over It” and “Finally Over It,” every one of them opening in the top two of the Billboard 200, and the label says that is still not enough. Industry experts who reviewed the contract called its terms brutal: a $110,000 advance and a 16 percent royalty rate on her first two records.
“UMG is entitled to recover damages in excess of $50,000,000 for the undelivered recordings.”
Her attorney Keith Moten told Rolling Stone they will fight the suit and file a countersuit of their own. Interscope said it respects Walker and hopes the two sides keep working together.
Three hit albums deep, and the meter is still running.
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