Swizz Beatz and Timbaland hit Triller with $28m lawsuit over alleged missing Verzuz payments
TikTok’s competitor Triller is being sued by superstar producers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz.
The pair are demanding $28 million in missing payments in connection with Triller’s acquisition of their song fighting brand Verzuz, which Triller buying in early 2021.
Verzuz was originally launched by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz in March 2020 during lockdown Instagram Direct.
The live streamed beat battle event has already taken place, with its creators continuing squid Cooperation with Apple Music in July 2020, before being acquired by Triller the following January.
Like report via Rolling Stone, the lawsuit, filed in a Los Angeles court on Tuesday (August 15), claims that Triller missed one of the required January payments after ending the settlement a year earlier. .
Rolling Stone The lawsuit further notes that the creators of Verzuz, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz (Kseem Daoud Dean and Timothy Mosley), subsequently agreed to a settlement with the platform on which it made its first payment on February.
Triller was then asked to pay $18 million in March and $1 million per month for the next 10 months. The lawsuit claims that Triller has not made any payments to Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, and that the couple is currently seeking the full $28 million through the lawsuit.
News of the lawsuit comes just months after Triller filed to go public on Nasdaq. Company announced in June that it will go public on Nasdaq via Live Listing.
Triller said that “global macroeconomic conditions” led to the decision to pursue a direct listing and axe one previously announced merged with SeaChange. Triller said in June that it expected the rise of its new, solo Nasdaq to be approved in Q3 2022.
This week’s news also follows a long time report are from The Washington Post in June alleging that dozens of Black creators were fighting to get paid by the platform after signing deals with it.
Triller CEO Mahi de Silva toldThe Washington Post: “We’re especially proud of our role in creating a platform that celebrates Black creator content. “No other medium has done as much as Triller for the often overlooked and under-represented portion of the creative economy,” he added.
“We didn’t want to publish our dirty laundry in the press, but we did pay Swizz and Tim millions of dollars in cash and inventory. So far, no one has benefited as much as Triller.”
Triller, in a statement to Rolling Stone
In a statement issued to Rolling StoneTriller said it wanted to resolve the dispute with Timbaland and Swizz Beatz “in a friendly and prompt manner”.
The firm added: “This is truly unfortunate and we hope it is nothing more than a misunderstanding driven by lawyers.
“We didn’t want to publish our dirty laundry in the press, but we did pay Swizz and Tim millions of dollars in cash and inventory. No one has benefited as much as Triller so far.”
Meanwhile, last month, Triller published an open letter from its CEO urging “every American” to remove its TikTok rival.Worldwide music business
