EXCLUSIVE: Cordae Hit With $15M Contract Lawsuit That May Derail Anderson .Paak Collab Album

Cordae faced a new lawsuit eight days before his joint album with Anderson .Paak was due.

MMMG sued the rapper and three labels on October 15, claiming an old deal gave it control of his new music.

The 20-page complaint obtained by AllHipHop named EMPIRE, Apeshit and Mass Appeal alongside Cordae. It asked a New York federal court to halt releases that MMMG claimed violated its rights.

“Defendants never requested nor received a license from MMMG to release this album,” MMMG’s lawyer, Jeffrey M. Movit of Cohen & Gresser, wrote.

The label based its claims on a deal dated April 2018. It alleged that the deal still bound Cordae to record for MMMG alone.

The suit targeted “A Good Day,” the single and video released on September 16.

It also challenged the rollout of Heavy Is The Crown, set for October 23 through APESHIT + EMPIRE / Hi Level + Mass Appeal.

The fight reached beyond one song. MMMG alleged that Cordae had also kept its share of income from merch, touring and other work.

The company alleged that “he refuses to pay MMMG its contractual share of the revenues.”

The label traced the dispute to a change in how his music reached stores and streaming services.

It said Atlantic ended its deal on September 2, 2025. MMMG claimed it secured a new deal with Stem and told Cordae’s lawyers two days later.

That mattered because the contract allowed a six-month search for a new distributor, according to the suit.

MMMG alleged that its Stem deal kept Cordae’s contract alive. It said his lawyers later disputed whether that deal met the contract’s terms.

The complaint gave MMMG’s account of that exchange. No defense response appeared in the five public docket entries reviewed.

Cordae and Anderson .Paak’s ties stretched back to “RNP” in 2019.

Their song appeared on The Lost Boy, Cordae’s debut through ART@WAR and Atlantic. The new project took that partnership from guest spots to a shared album.

Cordae launched Hi Level in June 2021 while he was still signed to Atlantic. He made ownership a key part of his pitch for the new label.

For “A Good Day,” the suit sought at least $5 million or, as an alternative, damages set by copyright law.

It requested at least $15 million from Cordae for breach of contract. It also sought at least $5 million from the labels for allegedly causing that breach.

MMMG also asked for a jury trial and an order to bar further use of recordings it claimed it owned.