Who Gets to Own T.I.’s Masters? Rapper Sues Cinq/GoDigital

Photo Credit: T.I. for Million Dollaz Worth of Game (YouTube) / CC by 4.0

Rapper T.I. is suing Cinq Music with allegations that the label is refusing to honor a contract provision that allows him to buy back his masters.

Clifford Harris, better known as rapper T.I., has filed a lawsuit against Cinq Music, part of the GoDigital Media Group, alleging that the label is refusing to honor a 2017 contract provision that allows him to buy back the masters for his Atlantic Records-era catalog. The catalog includes albums like King and Paper Trail.

Harris claims that after he exercised his option in 2024, Cinq tried to warp the agreed-upon formula—which intentionally excluded streaming revenue—so that it could “extract a purchase price from [Harris] that was nearly 20 times higher than the price mandated” by the agreement.

According to the filing, Cinq wrote the original agreement nearly a decade ago and now regrets that the terms are not in its favor; the lawsuit accuses the label of “artificially inflating” the price to force a new negotiation and block the sale.

Instead of the maximum price of $3 million that Harris says he should pay for his albums under the original deal, he asserts that Cinq asked for a “significantly overstated” price of $52 million.

“Cinq regretted that it had agreed to the [terms], and, therefore […] did everything it could to frustrate [Harris’] efforts to complete the purchase,” Harris’ attorney wrote.

“Because it was common knowledge when the parties entered into the Cinq agreement in 2017 that audio streaming and video streaming via the DSPs had become the main driver of music industry growth and revenues, Cinq had ample reason to know then that the [streaming] exclusion would have a significant impact on the [price].”

Further, Harris’ suit claims that Cinq manipulated the numbers when it came to deducting his royalties, and did so as part of an overarching effort to inflate the price he would ultimately have to pay for his music. His attorneys assert that the label was perfectly aware of the terms of the agreement but violated them in the hopes of triggering a negotiation that would lead to a more favorable price for the company.

Update (April 30th): Since the publication of this piece, Cinq/GoDigital has responded with the following statement.

“Cinq Music believes in integrity and fairness. We work across the board to foster creativity and ensure our artists are compensated equitably. At the same time, we disagree with the points made by the opposing party as stated in the article. In our opinion, the other side is making a push for Cinq to accept a valuation which is clearly off-base. We will respond through the appropriate legal channels, and continue to seek an agreement fair to all parties.”