The civil trial between Chancelor Bennett (Probability the Rapper) and his former supervisor Patrick Corcoran is now effectively underway within the Circuit Court docket of Prepare dinner County, Illinois — a case MBW has been protecting since 2020.
On the coronary heart of the dispute is an oral settlement that Corcoran says he struck with Bennett in 2013, entitling him to fifteen% of web earnings throughout all revenue streams and together with a three-year post-termination sundown clause.
Corcoran is in search of $3.8 million in unpaid commissions. Bennett doesn’t dispute the 15% association however denies ever agreeing to a sundown clause, and has countersued, alleging that Corcoran breached his fiduciary duties and leveraged the Probability model for private enrichment.
Proceedings kicked off final week with Corcoran taking the stand first. His testimony ran throughout a number of days. Bennett then testified on Tuesday (March 10) beneath cross-examination by Corcoran’s legal professional, Robert Sweeney. Bennett’s personal counsel, Treasured Jacobs-Perry, started questioning him briefly on the finish of the day. The trial is scheduled to final roughly two weeks.
MBW has obtained transcripts of the testimony. Listed here are seven key moments from the primary week.
1) CORCORAN (pictured) TESTIFIED THAT CHANCE REFUSED TO SIGN WRITTEN AGREEMENTS WITH VIRTUALLY EVERY PROFESSIONAL AROUND HIM
The absence of a written administration contract is the one most contested problem on this case. Bennett’s aspect says the dearth of documentation proves no sundown clause existed; Corcoran’s group used his testimony to reframe that hole as a sample of conduct.
Below direct examination, Corcoran walked by way of a catalog of alleged unsigned agreements — claiming Probability by no means signed together with his music legal professional Peter Lewit, his enterprise supervisor Bruce Kolbrenner, reserving company CAA, agent Cara Lewis after she left CAA, or assistant Colleen Mares.
Probably the most vivid instance: at Lollapalooza in 2017, C3 Presents booker Houston Powell allegedly “cornered” Corcoran and stated if Probability “doesn’t signal this settlement, I’m not letting him get on the stage.” Even then, Corcoran testified, Probability directed another person to signal on his behalf.
Requested why Probability was averse to signing, Corcoran replied: “Given this expertise that I’m going by way of proper now, maybe it could possibly be a method to obfuscate a few of his commitments to his companions and to individuals.”
2) CORCORAN CLAIMS HE LOST OVER $350,000 RUNNING CHANCE’S MERCHANDISE OPERATION — AND SUBSIDIZED THE LOSSES HIMSELF
Corcoran testified that he constructed Probability’s merchandise enterprise from scratch — starting with personally packing orders in his residence — and financed the whole infrastructure by way of his firm Haight Model, investing $1.1 million and dropping greater than $350,000 over the lifecycle of the partnership.
He advised the courtroom he selected to not replace Probability’s legacy pricing at the same time as prices rose, preferring to soak up losses and offset them by way of commissions from different purchasers together with Daniel Caesar, Kygo, and Zedd. “I’m Probability’s associate. I simply wished him to have the very best of all the pieces,” he testified.
Corcoran additionally addressed the seller fee problem central to Bennett’s countersuit, testifying that overpayments from Rowboat Inventive ($4,000) and Tradition Studio ($22,000) had been both utilized to different purchasers or returned. Bennett’s aspect characterizes these not as errors however as proof Corcoran was “buying and selling on Mr. Bennett’s good title for his personal profit.”
3) CORCORAN CLAIMS HE’S OWED COMMISSIONS ON DEALS HE SET UP BEFORE BEING FIRED — INCLUDING NETFLIX, BEN & JERRY’S AND A LIVE NATION TOUR
Past the sundown dispute, Corcoran advised the jury — in response to Law360‘s reporting from the Friday session — that he personally organized three alternatives earlier than being terminated in April 2020 — a task on Netflix’s Rhythm + Circulation, a Ben & Jerry’s partnership, and a Stay Nation tour — which Bennett then executed with out paying his former supervisor.
“I sacrificed all the pieces” to be part of Bennett’s “superb” profession, Corcoran testified. “I simply need… the cash I’m pretty owed and what we agreed to.”
Regardless of his criticisms of The Huge Day’s rollout, Corcoran stated he by no means misplaced religion in Bennett: “I’ve by no means wavered, and I nonetheless don’t waver to today on Probability’s expertise.” Requested by Bennett’s counsel how he might declare to like somebody he was suing, Corcoran — as reported by Law360 — replied: “Love can take many varieties… I daydream about this all being behind us sooner or later and perhaps being mates once more.”
The Ben & Jerry’s deal was not talked about in Corcoran’s unique 2020 criticism, representing a notable enlargement of the monetary declare at trial.
4) BENNETT TESTIFIED THAT CORCORAN TRIED TO CUT HIMSELF INTO A UNITEDMASTERS DEAL
Probably the most emotionally charged portion of Bennett’s testimony involved a proposed funding in UnitedMasters, the music distribution firm based by file government Steve Stoute that was geared towards impartial artists. Bennett testified that Stoute, a private contact he had launched to the Chicago Public Colleges fundraising effort, invited him to take an fairness stake within the firm and function its public face — a deal he stated was valued at $10 million.
Bennett stated he confronted Corcoran in both late 2017 or early 2018 after studying from an “outdoors individual” that his supervisor had gone behind his again to request his personal fairness stake within the deal. Based on Bennett, Corcoran broke down in tears and admitted it, providing two justifications: he knew he wouldn’t receives a commission from the UnitedMasters deal, and the corporate would compete immediately with companies he owned individually.
Bennett testified that he challenged Corcoran on why he couldn’t personal one thing independently — “I don’t have any a part of your organization” — and that Corcoran responded by providing to “give” the rapper a proportion of his personal firms. However when the written settlement arrived, Bennett stated it included a $2 million funding requirement, provisions addressing his title, picture and likeness, and language round last decision-making energy.
“It felt [like when] you catch any individual doing one thing, and so they swear they’re by no means going to do it once more, and so they give you one thing to rehabilitate the connection, and then you definately have a look at what they give you and it’s like, ‘This doesn’t rehabilitate the connection. This feels sneaky, too,’” Bennett testified.
Requested whether or not he ought to have fired Corcoran at that time, Bennett stated: “I most likely ought to have fired him.” However he added: “I can’t assure that he wouldn’t have lied and stated that he had a sundown in that scenario, too.”
5) BENNETT TESTIFIED THAT THE SUNSET CLAUSE WAS NEVER RAISED UNTIL CORCORAN FILED HIS LAWSUIT — AND THAT THE TWO WERE “ESTRANGED” FOR MONTHS BEFORE THE FORMAL TERMINATION
Bennett was direct in his testimony about when the sundown clause first entered the dispute: not throughout the 2013 dialog in Corcoran’s residence, not in 2015 when Corcoran says he thought-about investing extra in his personal enterprise, and never in 2019 when the connection started to deteriorate — however solely after Corcoran filed swimsuit in 2020.
“There was no point out of a sundown in any respect till he filed the courtroom case,” Bennett testified.
He described the oral settlement itself as a short, casual change — “we each know that the one factor we mentioned was how I used to be going to pay him” — and stated it addressed no provisions round termination, post-term funds, or the dealing with of investments. Bennett pointed to Corcoran’s personal memorialization electronic mail to legal professionals, by which the supervisor wrote that compensation on investments could be “advert hoc” — that means, Bennett testified, “they’ll get determined as they go.”
Bennett additionally testified that whereas the formal termination letter was despatched on April 27, 2020, the working relationship had successfully ended months earlier. The 2 had exchanged what Bennett described as “form of imply letters” in late 2019 and had been “principally estranged” by way of early 2020, throughout which era Corcoran continued texting Bennett about alternatives as if he nonetheless labored for him.
Bennett stated the termination letter was a defensive measure: “I actually imagine that I’ve to do that as a result of I believe this dude goes to attempt to file a lawsuit towards me and I have to have an finish date.”
6) BENNETT ACKNOWLEDGED CANCELLING MULTIPLE TOURS — INCLUDING A EUROPEAN RUN TWO WEEKS AFTER WINNING THREE GRAMMYS — ON WHICH CORCORAN STOOD TO EARN SIGNIFICANT COMMISSIONS
Sweeney walked Bennett by way of a sample of tour cancellations — every costing Corcoran potential fee revenue, none prompting him to demand fee.
Probably the most hanging: a full European tour for August 2017, cancelled two weeks after Bennett gained three Grammys. A textual content change confirmed Bennett telling Corcoran: “Hey, I need to cancel the Europe tour in August.” The explanation: “Nah. I simply bought a powerful feeling about it.” Corcoran’s reply: “I really feel you. I’ll ensure it’s all canceled and determine it out correctly… Right here for you and love you.”
Bennett testified he didn’t keep in mind the cancellation till Sweeney raised it in courtroom. Sweeney additionally coated the 2019 no-show at Australia’s Splendour within the Grass — the place Bennett was changed as closing-night headliner by native act Hilltop Hoods — and the pulling of The Huge Day tour, which carried ensures Sweeney instructed had been round $30 million.
In every case, Corcoran stood to lose substantial revenue but by no means pushed again. “He might have stated, hey, Probability, we’re going to make a ton of cash. Right here, simply do the tour,” Sweeney famous. Bennett agreed. The implication for the jury: this was not a supervisor appearing in his personal monetary self-interest, however one who repeatedly put his consumer’s needs first.
7) BENNETT WAS CONFRONTED WITH EVIDENCE THAT HE OPERATES “HIS OWN LABEL” — AND TAKES A 50% CUT FROM HIS COLLABORATORS
Sweeney confronted Bennett with a November 2020 electronic mail from his personal lawyer, Nicole Della Maggiore, to producer Nosaj Factor’s legal professional. In it, Della Maggiore was clearing a aspect artist settlement for Probability’s Acid Rap mixtape and defined the royalty construction as follows: “Probability operates his personal label and, like every other label deal, one half of the web earnings go to the label aspect for bills, operations, workers, et cetera. That is the best way web receipts are dealt with for each deal on this mission and Probability’s different initiatives.”
Bennett initially denied charging collaborators a label price — “No. I don’t know the place you even bought that from” — and resisted the framing by way of a number of rounds of questioning, objecting to Sweeney’s use of the phrase “cost” earlier than ultimately accepting “deduct.” After sustained strain, he conceded the assertion within the electronic mail was true: he takes a 50% label share off the highest earlier than splitting the remaining artist share together with his collaborators.
The change carried added weight as a result of Sweeney had already walked Bennett by way of the satirical label parodies displayed on the LED display throughout his Be Inspired tour — the place Probability renamed Aftermath Leisure as “Can’t Do Math Leisure,” Atlantic as “Titanic,” Warner Music Group as “Wiener Music Group,” and Sony as “Sony de Phony,” amongst others. Bennett confirmed he needed to personally apologize to Dr. Dre over the Aftermath parody.
“The very factor you say is predatory, you’re doing it to your pals?” Sweeney requested.
Bennett pushed again, arguing that his 50/50 break up was extra beneficiant than the industry-standard 85/15 and that, not like a conventional label, he had by no means signed an artist or taken possession of anybody else’s catalog. “I’ve by no means signed anyone. I’ve by no means taken anyone’s rights,” he testified. However the concession that he successfully operates as a label — whereas having constructed his total public model on independence from the label system — gave Corcoran’s aspect one of the vivid exchanges of the trial up to now.
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