Summer Walker is suing LVRN (Love Renaissance), the Atlanta-based label and management company that signed her in 2017.
The R&B artist accuses LVRN of fraud and is asking a court to declare her September 2017 agreement with the company “void and unenforceable.”
That’s according to Rolling Stone, which obtained the 10-page complaint and reported its contents on Tuesday (October 13).
The suit was filed in Atlanta on August 28, more than six weeks before it surfaced publicly.
Walker makes three claims against LVRN: that it broke their contract, that it fraudulently hid money from her, and that it failed in its legal duty to act in her best interests.
She is seeking damages to cover her alleged losses, plus punitive damages, which courts can award to punish a defendant’s conduct.
Walker‘s complaint does not put a figure on either, leaving the amounts for the court to decide.
Her lawyer, Keith Moten, told Rolling Stone that ending Walker‘s contract with LVRN is what she wants most from the case.
If Walker wins, LVRN could lose one of its flagship artists and be ordered to pay damages.
The complaint describes the rights LVRN secured under the 2017 agreement as “particularly oppressive and extensive” and alleges that the deal gave the company “controlling influence” over Walker.
It argues that LVRN‘s alleged failure to deal with Walker in good faith was so serious that the company itself broke the agreement.
The complaint alleges that LVRN took money from the budgets set aside for Walker‘s tours, recordings, marketing, and merchandise, Rolling Stone reported.
It further claims the company charged its own expenses to those budgets in bad faith, in amounts Walker says were excessive.
Separately, Walker alleges that LVRN sold merchandise carrying her name and likeness on Amazon and other online stores, and that she received nothing from those sales.
She also claims the company ran a YouTube page in her name without her knowledge.
According to the complaint, LVRN deleted the page’s historical data before handing control to Walker and never paid her any of the revenue it earned.
Moten said that after Walker devoted years of her career to the company, LVRN “has breached Summer’s trust in them and has failed Summer in numerous ways.”
He added that the legal case for freeing Walker from her LVRN contract is a strong one.
Lawyers for LVRN did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
MBW has contacted LVRN for comment.
The suit came to light days after Universal Music Group‘s Interscope Records sued Walker for more than USD $50 million, as MBW reported.
Interscope‘s complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on October 9, alleges that Walker has delivered only three of the five albums required under her contract.
That suit followed Walker‘s move to leave her Interscope deal under a California law that bars anyone from being held to a personal services contract for more than seven years.
Her attorneys told Interscope she would stop working under that agreement as of August 27 – the day before her lawsuit against LVRN was filed.
A 1987 amendment to the California law allows labels to claim damages from artists who use it to leave before delivering all the albums they agreed to make.
An Interscope spokesperson told Billboard that while the label hoped ongoing talks would resolve the dispute, “the statutory deadline makes it necessary to file suit.”
Moten has said that Walker plans to countersue Interscope.
Walker signed with LVRN on September 15, 2017, and with Interscope on November 1, 2017, according to Rolling Stone.
LVRN has since exited the joint venture it ran with Interscope.
“We’re still partners with them on Summer Walker and on 6lack,” LVRN CEO Tunde Balogun told MBW in June.
LVRN now has a distribution deal with Sony Music-owned The Orchard.
Matt Pincus‘s investment firm MUSIC took a minority stake in LVRN in a deal, announced in January 2023, that valued the company at more than USD $100 million.
The terms of Walker‘s 2017 agreements with LVRN have come under scrutiny before.
In November 2021, Rolling Stone published details of draft and signed versions of those agreements, reporting that the advance and royalty rate were low by industry standards.
LVRN‘s management denied the report at the time.
Walker also responded on Instagram, saying the article did not describe her current deal, which she said had been changed many times.
“I’ve always had my own representation and full support from LVRN,” Walker wrote.
Walker‘s new complaint alleges that she had no independent lawyer advising her before she signed her 2017 deal with LVRN, according to Billboard.
Walker‘s three studio albums, Over It, Still Over It, and Finally Over It, were all released while she was signed to both companies.
Still Over It reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, while the other two each peaked at No. 2.Music Business Worldwide
