The battle for masters continues, and this time **T.I.** is taking his fight to federal court. Tip has filed a massive lawsuit against **Cinq Music** (owned by GoDigital Media Group), accusing the label of trying to finesse him out of nearly $50 million to buy back his own catalog. Here's the breakdown: Back in 2017, T.I. sold his Atlantic-era catalog to Cinq. According to the lawsuit, he only agreed to the deal because Cinq gave him an option to buy the masters back later on "very favorable" terms. The agreed-upon formula capped the buyback price at around $3 million, explicitly excluding streaming revenue and foreign income from the calculation. Fast forward to 2024. T.I. decides to exercise his buyback option. Suddenly, Cinq allegedly changes the math. According to T.I.'s legal team, the label completely ignored the streaming exclusion in the contract and hit him with a massive $52 million valuation—nearly 20 times what they originally agreed upon. T.I.'s attorney, **Robert Jacobs**, stated that Cinq "regretted that it had agreed to the [option terms], and, therefore... did everything it could to frustrate plaintiffs' efforts to complete the purchase." They claim the label knew exactly what they were doing and intentionally violated the contract hoping to force a new negotiation. This is a classic industry tale of labels trying to hold onto a goldmine when the artist comes to collect. Streaming exploded way beyond what many predicted a decade ago, and now Cinq allegedly wants a bigger piece of the pie than they signed up for. We'll see how this plays out in court, but The King of the South isn't backing down.
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