Last month R&B singer Brandy filed a lawsuit against her record label Chameleon Entertainment and its owner Breyon Prescott accusing them of refusing to allow her to record or release any new music [click here if you missed that].
Chameleon fires back accusing Brandy of being irrelevant and pulling a PR stunt...
A statement from Chameleon to The Jasmine Brand reads in part
Breyon Prescott has not been served.
This is a stunt to drum up publicity for her single release. Brandy released a video for Begging and Pleading today. If Prescott wanted to, he could pull the song from iTunes. At no point was Brandy blocked or controlled from recording or releasing new music. In January of 2016, she released a single “Begging and Pleading”, without any résistance from Chameleon Entertainment. Brandy is not signed to Epic Records. Brandy uses her music as a tool to promote her acting career. Breyon and Brandy haven’t spoken more than 3 words to each other in 3 years. Brandy had huge multimillion selling hits on Atlantic Records from 1994 to 2002. But her sales began to decline as tastes changed, downloading cut into sales, and her audience moved on. She went from selling over 1 million copies in 2002 with “Full Moon” to just 400,000 in 2004 for “Afrodisiac.” Brandy left Atlantic at that point for Epic Records, which is part of Sony Music. Her 2008 album, called “Knockout,” bombed, selling just 214,000 copies. Epic, undergoing a leadership change, dropped her.
Without a record deal, Brandy signed a production deal (not a management deal) with Chameleon, run by Breyon Prescott. (In 2011) Chameleon worked out a deal and got Brandy signed to RCA, despite failing previously under the Sony music family. In 2012, under RCA, Brandy’s album “Two Eleven”, only sold 180,000 copies. The expense of promoting the album far exceeded money made from the copies sold. Brandy was more interested in doing TV, movies and Broadway than in touring for the album; which resulted in low sales.
RCA cut their losses and dropped her. In early 2015, Prescott joined Epic Records — under the same Sony umbrella. Prescott managed to get Brandy a new contract at Epic, the label asked for a 360 deal– one in which they would get a cut of her other businesses like tours and merchandise. That way, if a new album bombed, they’d be protected. (As touring has overtaken record sales in revenue, 360 deals are common nowadays.)
The deal was worth $600,000 with a $75,000 advance. Brandy stalled, and never signed the contract. There were no other offers. No other label wanted her, and so she did not make a new record. In 2015, Brandy re-recorded vocals for a new version of (“The Girl is Mine”) which was released in the U.K. Chameleon didn’t even know about it in advance.
In January 2016 she released “Begging and Pleading,” under her own label. Chameleon didn’t protest or stop her from releasing it. Once again, they didn’t even know about it in advance.
The Epic offer remains and she is still signed to Chameleon. If Prescott wanted to, he can remove the song from iTunes.
Read the full statement here.
