Plies' Attorney Clarifies Sample Lawsuit for Megan Thee Stallion Producer, Critics

TMZ

Plies filed an explosive lawsuit yesterday accusing Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla, Cardi B and Soulja Boy of infringing on one of his catalog cuts ... his attorney says its arrival right after the election was just a coincidence!!!

Transcript

00:00Soulja Boy has never denied that he sampled Ply's.

00:07This sounds like, I don't want to call it make-believe, but it's convenient that's the

00:14argument that was put forth by various lawyers throughout the negotiation, and it sounds

00:18like it was information that was fed from a lawyer.

00:22When we did our analysis with the musicologist, it's pretty clear that the sample was from

00:28Ply's record.

00:32There's similarities, certainly, to the other record, but those were never discussed, thought

00:40of, or heard of until they received communications from Harvard-trained lawyers about why our

00:46clients weren't being compensated.

00:48This lawsuit isn't a strategically timed attack against black women, which I've read your

00:55publication.

00:57Brother Ply's has said a lot of meaningful and important things in support of black women.

01:02This is a lawsuit.

01:04The first name up here who has the actual pockets here is Universal Music Group.

01:12My communication is directed to the labels, the record labels, the people that actually

01:17own the music.

01:18The artists are wonderful, wonderful artists.

01:21This isn't an attack against any of the artists.

01:23This is just a matter of revenue was made by major companies, and major companies were

01:30supposed to split that revenue amongst the shareholders.

01:33My clients, in this case, are part of those shareholders.

01:38I want to make sure I address that piece because you can sue a large company, and unfortunately,

01:45the other actors have to be a part of that lawsuit, and it not be a personal attack against

01:49a race, or color, or gender.

01:51This is just a business thing that was happening for the last six to eight months, and something

01:57that was filed, quite frankly, before he ever even made his statement in support of black

02:02women.

02:03It's just, it gets to the court systems, it comes out when it comes out.

02:06You press the media, TMZ, you're the fastest ever, but you find it when you find it, and

02:10then you want to talk about it, but I will say, and my representation applies, he's consistent

02:16with his support of black women.

02:18Regular, it was the day after election, but just a regular Wednesday for the courts.

02:22Yeah, regular Wednesday for the courts.

02:24And then I also will say that there was an amazing black woman, Angel Ransby, who was

02:31the author of this complaint.

02:33She works at my law firm, I'm very proud of her, she's from Atlanta.

02:36I want to make sure I give her a shout out because she did a fantastic job.

02:39So there's a lot of black women that are eaten off of this lawsuit.

02:42She's one of them.

02:43There's a camaraderie and a brotherhood amongst artists.

02:47And certainly at that time when these songs were coming out, 08, 07, 09, I think there

02:54was a friendship between those two particular artists.

02:58Not that there's not one now, but I think there were some handshakes and some agreements

03:02and people didn't handle their business as straightforward as they do it now with all

03:08their lawyers.

03:09And then what happens in law, there's statute of limitations.

03:13So if you don't bring an action before that happens, then you're precluded from actually

03:20bringing that action.

03:22And then someone might now bring it back to the forefront, like doing a deal with a song

03:27that you should have done a deal with before with somebody else.

03:30And now it's fresh meat, so to speak.

03:33And then the timing of this lawsuit, Trent, you brought up, myself and my co-counsel,

03:39Cindy Robbins, him and I went to law school together.

03:42And we've been trying to find a solution for this for many months.

03:46I've spoken to all the lawyers, spent a lot of time with Universal.

03:53And so this wasn't for lack of trying to find something that made some sense.

04:01Applies as a businessman, and he's a very, very, very smart, cerebral, intellectual,

04:07intelligent Black man.

04:09And so at some point, when he's not getting what he wants through a negotiation, he's

04:14the type of client that likes to take action.

04:16And so that's how we got to this lawsuit now.

04:19But we've been even at this for many, many months, trying to get it resolved in a more

04:24amicable way.

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