With Heavy Is the Crown, his joint album with Anderson .Paak, due out October 23, 2026, Cordae is facing a federal lawsuit that tries to stop it. MMMG Inc., a Florida-based label, sued the rapper on Thursday, October 15, 2026 in the Southern District of New York, claiming the album breaches the exclusive record deal it says he signed in 2018. The label is seeking at least $25 million and an injunction to halt releases of recordings it says it owns.
What MMMG claims
According to the 20-page complaint, as reported by Billboard and Complex, MMMG signed Cordae in April 2018 and released his first two albums with distribution from Atlantic Records. The label claims 100% ownership of his recorded copyrights, along with exclusive rights to his merchandise, touring and endorsements. Heavy Is the Crown is set for October 23 through .Paak’s label APESHIT, Mass Appeal and EMPIRE, all three of which are also named as defendants.
The suit lays out three sets of claims, Complex reported: willful copyright infringement over the September 16 lead single “A Good Day” and its Dave Meyers-directed video, seeking at least $5 million; breach of contract against Cordae over merch, touring and endorsement revenue the label says he withheld, seeking at least $15 million; and tortious interference against the three labels, seeking $5 million. MMMG says it will add more infringement claims if more tracks from the album come out.
“MMMG has held up its end of the bargain, including by investing enormous amounts of time, money and other resources in Cordae’s career,” the complaint reads, according to Billboard. “Rather than live up to his commitments, Cordae prefers to put his head in the sand and pretend that the agreement does not even exist.”
The fight is about a distributor
The case turns on a distribution clause. The complaint says Atlantic ended its distribution deal on September 2, 2025, and that two days later MMMG gave notice it had replaced Atlantic with the distribution platform Stem. MMMG says the contract gave it six months to line up a qualified distributor. According to the complaint, Cordae’s attorneys argue Stem does not meet that requirement and that the arrangement was invalid without an inducement letter agreeing to its terms. MMMG says the deal “contains no requirement whatsoever” for such a letter and calls the argument “utterly lacking in merit.”
The album was announced on August 19, 2026. MMMG says it sent cease-and-desist letters to EMPIRE and Mass Appeal the next day, and that Cordae “rebuffed” the demand to halt the project. None of the claims have been tested in court.
Representatives for Cordae, APESHIT, Mass Appeal and EMPIRE did not immediately respond to Billboard on October 16. Anderson .Paak is not personally named in the lawsuit or accused of any wrongdoing. As of the reports, Heavy Is the Crown was still scheduled for October 23, pending any ruling on MMMG’s request for an injunction.
For fans, the case is a reminder of how much of an artist’s career an early deal can reach. MMMG’s claims cover not just recordings but merch, touring and endorsements, the kind of multi-rights terms that can follow an artist long after a label’s distribution partner changes.