Mobb Deep, Manager Mishap

Hip Hop DX recently reported that infamous rap due Mobb Deep, comprised of Prodigy and Havoc, are filing suit against former manager and owner of Street Core Music, Normal “Purfek Storm” Bell. Bell was manager from May 2004 to November 2007. During that time, Mobb Deep believes Bell promoted, distributed, and sold unreleased tracks without the proper authorization from the group. Tracks were released to on several mixtape series’ including Mobb Deep: The Infamous Archives and The Purfek Storm Mixtape Vol. 1 and 3.

Like most disputes between artist and manager in this business, the majority of them could be resolved overnight by looking at the original language in the artist management contract. However, and this happens way to frequently, Mobb Deep claims that had an “oral agreement” with Bell. The lawsuit filed states that they “never warranted him the power to distribute unreleased music.”

As hopeful as this sounds for Mobb Deep, all of this could have been avoided if they had an artist management contract. By laying out the details, roles, and responsibilities of the involved parties, when disputes come up, just look at the contract. If they had a contract with Bell, it should have explicitly stated what he was, and was not entitled to do with their music.

My advice for Mobb Deep and anyone else thinking about “signing” on with a manager: Get an extremely detailed contract that outlines the roles and responsibilities of the artist and the manager.