Rapper Yo Gotti ordered to pay $6.6million for blocking release of his single with Young Fletcher
'Down in the DM' rapper Yo Gotti has been slapped with a $6.6 million judgment in a lawsuit for reportedly agreeing to record a song with an up-and-coming North Carolina rapper named Young Fletcher and then refusing to sign an agreement that would allow its release.
Gotti had accepted $20,000 from Fletcher’s manager Michael Terry for the song and the pair recorded the song, but the single never came out as Gotti refused to sign what is known as a "side artist agreement". The "side artist agreement" would allow Fletcher to release the song with Yo Gotti’s verse on it on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, as well as websites like YouTube.
Gotti was allegedly evasive after recording the single, avoiding Terry and Fletcher’s continued attempts to get him to sign the agreement. According to Terry's attorney, this went on for months, until they got the Forsyth County sheriff’s deputy to serve the rapper during a performance in Winston-Salem. Gotti is accused of even recording another song with a verse identical to the one from his unreleased song with Fletcher. He also allegedly offered Fletcher $150,000 to leave his North Carolina record label and join Gotti’s Collective Music Group.
A North Carolina court delivered a judgment in the case on May 28 and ordered Gotti to pay Fletcher's manager Terry $2.2 million in damages before Judge Todd Burke tripled that amount to $ 6.6 million, as he felt that Gotti engaged in "unfair and deceptive trade practices".
Yo Gotti did not attend the hearing and nor did his company send any attorneys for the hearing. Following the judgment, Terry said that they will be going after Gotti's cars and Bel Air mansion, so he "might want to pick up the phone now".
The rapper, whose real name is Mario Mims, debuted with his album 'Youngsta's On a Come Up' in 1996, after which he has released multiple albums like 'Back 2 da Basics' (2006) and 'I Still Am' (2017).
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