XXXTentacion Lawsuit: Mother Countersues Producer as Ugly Court Battle Escalates

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Photo of XXXTentacion

The mother of the late rapper XXXTentacion has filed a countersuit against a music producer and former friend of the rapper who is suing his estate for $2 million.

The original lawsuit was filed by producer Duval, whose real name is Jimmy Duval. He filed the suit in conjunction with Stache Records, believing that he did not receive royalties owed to him on songs he and the rapper recorded together, nor did he receive proper songwriting and producing credit.

In the countersuit, the rapper’s mother Cleopatra Bernard is asking the court not only to dismiss the claims of Duval but also to provide her attorney fees. She insists that the royalties that Duval are claiming were given to an artist named Mala, who successfully argued that he was the copyright owner of the song in question.

She further says that the credit aspect of the lawsuit is based on a misunderstand Duval has of how the music business operates.

In her filing, Bernard says:

“Defendants also allege that Duval did not receive an appropriate producer credit for his production work on the Recording. However, Defendants’ claim reveals a complete lack of understanding as to the music industry’s current mechanism for attributing producer credits. It is undisputed that the Recording was only released digitally. It is well known that, up until very recently, the vast majority of digital content providers, such as Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, SoundCloud, etc., did not have a mechanism by which producers could be credited.”

XXXTentacion died on June 18, 2018 after being fatally shot during a robbery. He reportedly signed a $10 million record deal just before his death.

Shortly after the rapper died, Billboard interviewed Duval and asked him about the music that they were working on when XXXTentacion died. He said, “We didn’t even finish it. I don’t know. I don’t even know whose decision that would be which is kind of interesting.”