Nelly, 50 Cent Defrauded By Record Label

27 April 2005

Universal Music, the record label responsible for artists including 50 Cent, Gwen Stefani and Nelly, is reportedly being sued on behalf of its own artists.

National Music Marketing together with Majestic Promotions are seeking approximately AUS$150 million from the record giant, claiming it submits false invoices on behalf of their biggest earners - and then uses them to subsidise their promotion budgets of smaller, less known artists.

One lawyer said of the lawsuit: "What (Universal) was doing was defrauding their artists - some of their biggest artists.

"Nelly is not going to be too happy that they were taking money out of his promotion budget to pay for promotions for other artists - money that he had to pay back from his royalties."