A Chicago jury sided with Chance the Rapper in his long-running legal dispute with former manager Pat Corcoran, rejecting the latter’s $3.8 million claim against Chance.
However, jurors awarded Chance (aka Chancelor Bennett) just $35 in his countersuit out of the $1 million that he had sought.
Jay Scharkey, one of Corcoran’s lawyers, said in a statement to MBW: “We respect the jury’s decision, but the message to music managers is clear: Get it in writing. The jury award of $35 speaks to how seriously the jury viewed Chance’s case.”
The verdict arrived Friday (March 20) after a two-and-a-half week trial in Cook County, capping a legal fight that began in 2020 when Corcoran sued Chance the Rapper alleging unpaid commissions.
Corcoran (aka Pat the Manager), claimed he was owed 15% “of the net profits on all revenues generated by CTR, Cool Pop Merch and CTR Touring in exchange for Corcoran’s management service.” He was sacked by the rapper in April 2020 and was replaced by Chance’s brother, Taylor Bennett, and father, Kenn Bennett.
However, the two never had a written contract, Chance the Rapper’s lawyers argued.
“We respect the jury’s decision, but the message to music managers is clear: Get it in writing. The jury award of $35 speaks to how seriously the jury viewed Chance’s case.”
Jay Scharkey, Pat Corcoran’s lawyer
Corcoran’s lawyers have argued that Corcoran was entitled to commissions under a so-called “sunset clause,” which grants a manager payment of up to three years after their split.”
Chance’s lead attorney, Precious Jacobs–Perry, said as per the Chicago Sun Times: “There’s not one single document in the seven years they worked together that shows any evidence of a sunset.”
Jacobs-Perry also claimed that Corcoran was overpaid by $312,300 before his termination, the newspaper said.
“Pat’s case is really about Pat’s greed trying to take something that he does not deserve and that was never agreed to. … Pat has been fully compensated and is entitled to nothing more.”
The jury was also in favor of Chance on his 2021 countersuit, which alleged Corcoran breached his fiduciary duty by prioritizing his own business interests.
During the trial, Kenn Bennett, Chance’s father and chief of staff, described how when Chance’s album The Big Day landed at No. 2 on Billboard 200 in 2019, he went to Corcoran hoping to push the project forward, according to a transcript of the trial obtained by MBW.
“There’s not one single document in the seven years they worked together that shows any evidence of a sunset.”
Precious Jacobs–Perry, Chance the Rapper’s lawyer
“He said, ‘I think we should do nothing’,” Kenn Bennett testified. “I had never heard these kind of words from Patrick Corcoran… He said, ‘I think we should let the project die’.”
“And I could not understand this young man, who I had been working with for years, how — where this change came come from. And where for the first time, we’re not going to do anything. The go-guy, my go-guy was now my no-guy,” he said.
As MBW reported in 2020, Corcoran’s dismissal followed the disappointing performance of Chance’s first studio album, The Big Day – released in July 2019 – and the scrapping of a subsequent tour following poor ticket sales.
Meanwhile, when asked whether he felt responsible for what followed, Kenn Bennett said, “I failed my son,” adding that he recommended Pat Corcoran. “I found Pat Corcoran. I trained Pat Corcoran. I am responsible for Pat Corcoran.”
He also testified that the sunset clause, which was the focus of Corcoran’s lawsuit, had never come up between them. “Pat never mentioned that to me.” (The $3.8m Pat was seeking included $1.6 million in sunset clause-related commissions and $2.2 million for work that went unpaid.)
When asked if he knew about Chance and Corcoran’s agreement for 15% of net proceeds that the manager is entitled to, Kenn Bennett said: “I had heard that.”
During the trial, Jacobs-Perry argued that Corcoran had grown absent in his later years, pointing to 24,000 unfulfilled merchandise orders in 2019. She also accused the former manager of seeking equity in Chance’s recordings through UnitedMasters in 2017, according to Billboard.
Chance reportedly confronted him after the fact, “hoping his friend would tell him it wasn’t true.”
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