Heavy Is the Crown arrived Friday as planned — even as a Florida label asks a federal court for $25 million and claims the album should never have come out.
By Theon — The Superfan, CelebnMusic247
The album is out — and it dropped with a court fight attached. Cordae and Anderson .Paak released their first full-length project together, Heavy Is the Crown, on Friday (Oct. 23) through Apesh*t, EMPIRE, Hi Level and Mass Appeal. But according to documents filed in New York federal court and obtained by XXL, Florida-based label MMMG is suing Cordae and the companies behind the release for $25 million, alleging the rapper violated an exclusive recording contract signed back in 2018 — and asking the court to block the album outright.
A link-up years in the making!
Fans have been waiting on this one. Cordae and .Paak have been crossing paths for years, most famously on “RNP,” the standout from Cordae’s 2019 debut The Lost Boy, and Heavy Is the Crown finally gives the pairing a full 11-track canvas. Lead single “A Good Day” arrived Sept. 16, and visualizers for tracks like “I’m On,” “You’re Mine” and “Crown” rolled out alongside the release. On paper, it’s a victory lap for two of the most musical rappers alive. In the court filings, that lead single is exhibit A.
The lawsuit hanging over Cordae
Per XXL, MMMG — which does business publicly as Art@WAR and was founded by music executive and attorney James McMillan — filed its complaint on Oct. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, naming Cordae, EMPIRE Distribution, Apesh*t and Mass Appeal Records. The label says Cordae signed an exclusive recording agreement in April 2018, the same year McMillan signed him alongside YBN Nahmir and YBN Almighty Jay through a deal with Atlantic Records and ART@WAR, and that it still owns the copyrights to recordings made under that deal. The $25 million breaks down into three fights: $5 million in alleged copyright infringement over “A Good Day,” $15 million in allegedly unpaid revenue, and $5 million from the companies accused of interfering with the contract. Cordae’s most recent solo album, Crossroads, came out through Art@WAR/Atlantic in 2024.
Two stories about one contract
The whole case turns on what happened when Atlantic ended its distribution deal with MMMG in 2025. MMMG maintains the contract stayed alive — it says it lined up a replacement arrangement with Stem within days and notified Cordae’s attorneys on Sept. 4. Cordae’s side reportedly argues that the replacement deal did not satisfy the terms required to keep his recording agreement in effect. None of it has been decided in court, and notably, .Paak himself is not named as a defendant — only his company, Apesh*t, is. The injunction didn’t stop release day: Heavy Is the Crown is streaming now, crown, lawsuit and all.
The 247 Take — This is the oldest story in the music business wearing new clothes: a contract signed by a teenage Cordae in 2018 reaching up to grab the biggest release of his career. Whatever a judge decides, the music already won the first round — the album is out, the fans are fed, and .Paak remains the only man in hip-hop who can be adjacent to a $25 million lawsuit without technically being in it. Heavy is the crown, indeed.
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Sources: XXL | Digital Music News
