Sunday, December 20, 2015

Rita Sues Jay-Z's Label

Rita Ora has filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z's company, Roc Nation, looking to enforce California's famous seven-year rule on personal service contracts, which would allow her to be freed from her contract.


The singer claims that as Roc Nation developed its main areas of interest and expertise away from the music industry and "suffered a revolving door of executives", it left her "orphaned" with no-one to support her or push her career in the right direction, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

"When Rita signed, Roc Nation and its senior executives were very involved with her as an artist," states the complaint filed at Los Angeles Superior Court, continuing that, "Rita's remaining supporters at the label left or moved on to other activities, to the point where she no longer had a relationship with anyone at the company."

The seven-year rule in a contract means the signee (in this case Ora) is legally contracted to have served seven actual years, ommiting any holiday taken, which in actual terms stretches the contract to a longer calendar period. Ora, who has only released one studio album while signed to Roc Nation, claims that due to the lack of support from the label, it has unfairly stretched her contract, leaving her in a "political quagmire of dysfunction" and therefore wants out.

"Rita's relationship with Roc Nation is irrevocably damaged," states the complaint made on Ora's behalf by attorney Howard King. "Fortunately for Rita, the California legislature had the foresight to protect its artists from the sorts of vicissitudes she's experienced with Roc Nation."

Other stars to have successfully enforced the rule include Olivia Newton-John who brought a case against MCA Records who claimed that she had yet to deliver promised albums. While Newton-John was freed from contract, it resulted in the California legislature adding new rules for record contracts whereby artists who didn't fulfill their commitments during the term of a deal could be sued for "lost profits" on uncompleted albums.

Whether or not this could affect Ora's case is not yet known.

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