Chance The Rapper is suing his former manager, Pat Corcoran for £2.2million ($3million USD), accusing him of exploiting his position in order to divert business opportunities to his own companies, and tarnishing his image by demanding kickbacks from vendors as the price of doing business with him.
The lawsuit comes two months after Corcoran’s company sued the rapper’s businesses, saying he incurred more than $2.5 million of unreimbursed expenses supporting and promoting the musician’s career as his manager.
Chance The Rapper (real name Chancelor Johnathan Bennett) has responded to Corcoran’s breach of contract lawsuit and seeks to dismiss various counts, in addition to filing his own complaint.
“Mr. Corcoran has been paid in full under his management services contract with Mr. Bennett. Yet he chose to file a groundless and insulting lawsuit that ignores his own improper self-dealing and incompetence,” Bennett’s attorneys said in a statement.
“Mr. Bennett has moved to dismiss the majority of that meritless lawsuit, and filed his own lawsuit to remedy the harm that Mr. Corcoran caused through his breaches of duty. Mr. Bennett trusts the legal system to reveal the truth of the parties’ relationship in due course.”
Corcoran’s lawsuit claimed that himself and Bennett redefined the music industry together, but that due to Bennett not taking his advice, he released a “subpar” album in 2019.
Corcoran said in his suit that he was replaced by Bennett’s father, Ken, and younger brother, Taylor, after disappointing sales for The Big Day album and “underwhelming fan support” for the proposed tour.
Bennett has since claimed that Corcoran was a “marginally competent business manager” at best and a “bullying and abrasive self-promoter” at worst.
“Rather than confront the substance of Pat the Manager’s claims, the defendants have elected to attack Mr. Corcoran’s character and rewrite history,” Corcoran said in a statement to the Tribune.
“The aspersions cast by the Chance camp are offensive and do not reflect the reality of the relationship that Mr. Corcoran and Mr. Bennett developed over many years of collaboration.”
“The results of the pair’s fruitful teamwork – and the contrasting results when Mr. Corcoran was sidelined – are evident to the public. Mr. Corcoran is proud of the work he did on Mr. Bennett’s behalf, and is proud of the work he continues to perform for other talented artists. Mr. Corcoran looks forward to presenting his claims and airing out the defendants’ baseless accusations in court.”
In his suit, Bennett said when he met Corcoran in 2012 he was a “hanger-on at the fringes of the rap music scene in Chicago”.
Bennett and Corcoran reached oral agreement in 2013 that Corcoran would manage his music career in exchange for 15% of the net music profits, according to the suit.
Bennett claims he later discovered that Corcoran “effectively sabotaged” a deal that would have made him the celebrity ‘face’ of the music distributor UnitedMasters, saying that Corcoran traded on his “good name” for his own benefit.
Corcoran “sought to extort kickbacks from merchandise vendors by threatening that Mr. Bennett’s businesses would not hire the vendor unless the vendor gave Mr. Corcoran an equity interest in the vendor or made a payment to Mr. Corcoran or one of his businesses,” the suit claims.
