​ @VERZUZ lawsuit by @SwizzBeatzVEVO and @Timbaland SLAMS @Triller for a 28 million dollar PAYOUT!

1 year ago
30

DIDDY and his shiny suits backs his friends and #verzuz co-founders #timbaland and #swizzbeatz and hinted at a similar SoSo Def battle after the duo filed a #lawsuit on social media app #triller for $28 million over alleged missing payout.

Music artists Swizz Beatz and Timbaland sued Triller Tuesday, alleging the social media platform owes them more than $28 million after acquiring their live-streaming music series Verzuz.

Triller acquired Verzuz, a webcast series pitting musical acts against one another, in January 2021 for an undisclosed sum. “This is a momentous occasion not only for Verzuz and Triller but the music business as a whole,” Swizz Beatz and Timbaland said in a joint statement at the time.

But the lawsuit alleges the company began missing payments in January 2022, skipping out on a large settlement promised in March.

“To date, Defendants have failed and refused to make any payment to [Swizz Beatz and Timbaland] of the past due sums due and owing,” the suit reads.

A social media app that looks and functions similarly to TikTok, Triller gained prominence in 2020 when a number of right-wing influencers joined the homegrown app.

A TikTok rival promised millions to Black creators. Now some are deep in debt.

The company has previously been accused of nonpayment. Last year, Triller boasted a new partnership with 300 Black creators, who would receive a collective $14 million along with equity for participating in the deal. Many of those creators, however, allege that the social media company began missing payments almost immediately, according to reporting in The Washington Post. Creators who produced custom shows for Triller TV, the company’s live-streaming service, also told The Post that the brand owed them tens of thousands of dollars.In the suit, filed on Tuesday, Swizz and Timbaland — whose real names are Kaseem Daoud Dean and Timothy Mosley — alleged that they’d been trying to get the remainder of their earnings from the sale of Verzuz to Triller since the beginning of 2022. With the Verzuz acquisition, Triller “unequivocally and unconditionally guaranteed to Mosley and Dean the payment and performance of Triller Hold’s obligations under that agreement and related agreements,” the suit said.

Verzuz secured a deal with Apple in 2020, and by 2021, Triller, looking for content to compete with TikTok, bought the show. As the suit claims, under their original deal, Triller, which officially closed the Verzuz purchase on January 21, 2021, was to pay Dean and Mosley both shortly after the deal and on the first and second anniversary of the purchase. Triller paid the duo in January and April 2021, the suit says, but by January 28, 2022, the company had allegedly defaulted on its next required payment.

Timeline
0:00 Intro
0:40 Agenda
1:19 What Do We Know?
4:38 History of Verzuz
9:45 First Verzuz Battle (Swizz Beatz -v- Timbaland)
14:44 History of Triller
19:00 Triller buys Verzuz
20:08 Explanation of a Unit Purchase and Contribution Agreement
22:00 Elements of What Makes a Contract
29:04 Settlement Agreement
37:14 Economic Duress
43:20 Outro

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