George Clinton has sued Armen Boladian and Bridgeport Music for $100 million, claiming that Boladian deceived him into granting him control of around 90% of his musical catalogue.
Variety reports that Clinton revealed the lawsuit at a news conference outside the Apollo Theatre on Tuesday, March 11, during his battle to regain ownership of the copyrights to his greatest hits.
Clinton, whose civil rights lawyer Ben Crump joined, explained why he filed the lawsuit, pointing to his legacy and his wish for his family to profit from his hard work.
George Clinton told the audience, “These songs we’re talking about are my history. I must stand up for them; I must ensure that I did not do all of this throughout my life and that my family is here, not receiving what is rightfully theirs and what they inherited. We don’t have the opportunity to leave our families 40 acres and mules. The copyrights to the songs are not with us. Therefore, Ben, my partners, and I are here to ensure that Armen does not get what we worked so hard for.”
The 2025 Class of Songwriters Hall of Fame nominee went on:
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“This is about my family and the family of the other legacy artists and us being able to give generational wealth to our family from our intellectual property.”
Boladian is accused of denying the well-known songwriter millions of dollars in royalties, according to the case, which was formally filed in Florida District Court.
Clinton also claims that Boladian, his label Bridgeport Music, and labels such as Eastbound Records, Westbound Records, Nine Records, and Southfield Music are illegally continuing to make money off of his songs stating;
“I will continue to speak truth to power and to fight against the forces that have separated so many songwriters from their music, ” the Parliament-Funkadelic founder said during his speech. I encourage all my fellow artists to investigate, interrogate, litigate, unseal, and reveal. If we don’t get this right, then they win, and I refuse to let them win.”
However, Clinton has previously sued Boladian over the ownership of his music which he lost in 2001 after a Florida court awarded the rights to Clinton’s 1976–1983 tracks to Boladian and Bridgeport Music.
Afrobeatzplus.com will keep readers updated on the progress of George Clinton’s lawsuit.
