Cam’ron has sued fellow hip-hop star J. Cole, claiming he was never paid for his contribution to J. Cole’s 2024 track Ready ‘24, and that Cole reneged on a quid-pro-quo to appear on a Cam’ron track.
In a complaint filed on Tuesday (October 28) in a federal court in New York, Cam’ron (legal name Cameron Giles) said he contributed lyrics to Ready ‘24 and his vocals appeared on the recording, which was released in 2024 and appeared on Cole’s fourth mixtape, Might Delete Later.
Giles said he agreed to collaborate on Ready ‘24 on the conditions that he would be allowed to sign off on the track before it was released, and that Cole would appear on a future Cam’ron song. The complaint says Cole agreed to those terms.
However, the complaint alleges that none of this ever happened, and he has never received compensation for his contribution to Ready ‘24. Giles is listed as a co-author on the composition, but is not credited on the recording despite his vocals appearing on the track, the complaint added.
Giles estimates he is owed at least $500,000, and is asking the court for an accounting from Universal Music Group (UMG) – which is named as co-defendant – for the income earned by the track. Ready ‘24 was released by J. Cole’s Dreamville label and UMG’s Interscope.
“Plaintiff never received compensation from Cole, nor did he convey in writing any rights in the sound recording to Cole or the other defendants,” stated the complaint, which can be read in full here.
“Plaintiff has not been paid any royalties from the exploitation of the composition or sound recording.”
The complaint says the composition was registered with the Copyright Office by Warner Chappell Music, but the recording was never registered.
“Plaintiff never received compensation from Cole, nor did he convey in writing any rights in the sound recording to Cole or the other defendants.”
Cam’ron’s legal complaint against J. Cole
Giles says he was in touch with Cole following the recording of Ready ‘24 in New York in 2022, but after failing to get Cole to agree to appear on one of his tracks, he suggested Cole appear on Cam’ron’s sports podcast It Is What It Is. Cole allegedly agreed to appear at a later date, but then repeatedly said he was unavailable to appear.
The complaint asks the court to declare that Cam’ron is a co-author the sound recording of Ready ‘24, and for Cam’ron to be granted his “proportionate share” of the song’s earnings, as well as court costs and attorneys’ fees.
Cam’ron has been active in the hip-hop scene since the early 1990s and has released one RIAA-certified Platinum record and three Gold records. He has nearly 2.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, where his most popular tracks are Hey Ma, released in 2002, with 211 million streams, and Oh Boy, also released in 2002, with nearly 174 million streams.
Cole has been active since 2007 and has released four mixtapes and six studio albums. All of the albums reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. He has 33 million monthly listeners on Spotify, with No Role Modelz (2.72 billion streams) and Wet Dreamz (1.5 billion streams) his top tracks on the platform.Music Business Worldwide
