It's been a rough 10 days or so for Bad Boy. First, Day26 calls out labelmate Donnie Klang, then nude pictures of Cassie leak online.

Now, in an interview with Tai Saint Louis of AllHipHop.com, Yung Joc announces that he's filed suit against Russell "Block" Spencer, Block Entertainment and Harve Pierre, alledging "contractual discrepancies" and unpaid royalties.

It's a lengthy interview that you should read if you want to hear the entirety of Joc's side of the story, but here are some key points:

Joc says that he was never signed to Block, he was signed to Chino Dolla's Mastermind. But, even so, when Spencer brought Yung Joc to Bad Boy, they gave Spencer a label deal and a deal as if Joc was signed to him. According to the rapper, Spencer then used Joc's budget however he wanted. He infers that funds were misappropriated.

He admits to not putting his all in, when it came to promoting "Hustenomics," because of what was going on at the time. When it came time to do a third album, he felt shortchanged, suggesting that Block tried to offer him an advance, at $25,000, that was the same as he got for his first album and, as such, not in line with what he felt he deserved. "I ain't f***** with Block since December of '07," he says. "So, why would Bad Boy give him my full budget if they know I wasn't recording with him."

Meanwhile, the label (either Bad Boy, Atlantic or both) insists that he's signed through Block and, as such, rebuffed attempts by him to circumvent Spencer.

Louis asks something that was on my mind, as well, which was how the "Diddy Bop" collaboration came about with all of this going on.

"I still had to be a business man," Joc says in reply. "I still had to show good faith so nobody could say I’m not complying. So as a business man, I still had to do certain things. Like last night, they asked me to record a song with Marina Chello, this new artist that Bad Boy got, and Zoe. And I was gonna do it. But after I did 106 & Park with Day26 yesterday, I sat down realizing I been on 106 & Park ten times in the last year with no label support, and I ain’t even got an record out."

Why am I f***ing with these n***** and they not even trying to put my record or my album out while I got a buzz going with all these cameos?," he continued. "How many albums have you heard me on that have been hit records. If you was a label, wouldn’t you take advantage of that momentum? N***** is dummies, so I’m suing them. It’s like Harve and Block is homeboys, and Harve is trying to make me sign to Block. And I’m not gonna do it. They keep talking about, “there’s no way we’re gonna do this [label] deal without Block being involved.” How you gon’ do that? You can’t force me to sign to anybody. That’s a lawsuit in itself."

Though, this could explain why Joc is not featured on the version of "Diddy Bop" that was put out through Diddy's YouTube channel.

He says that Diddy, Pierre and Spencer all insist he sign with Block Entertainment, but he doesn't want to. According to him, they offered to give him half his budget so he can prepare his album, but he doesn't want to sign with Block to make that happen. He did offer to allow Block to still stamp his logo on the album and what not, to save public face, but he didn't want to officially sign.

It's funny though, because, even though Joc says he's not being paid royalties, at one part of the interview, he says that "this is the first time in two years I’ve had label support, and it’s on a Day26 record. That’s because they realized, "Damn, all these people making money with Joc. And he our artist, and we ain’t even seeing any of it."

But, if Bad Boy isn't seeing it, how is Joc supposed to see it? Joc is putting out what he calls an unofficial album through his Swagg Team Entertainment imprint. "Since Bad Boy/Block Entertainment don’t wanna play right, f*** ‘em," he says.

Joc is open to returning to Bad Boy/Atlantic, but only if presented with the "right contract" and with the alleged unpaid royalties paid. The interview closes with Joc being asked if there is a chance to fix this situation.

"Yes. I spoke to Harve yesterday and I spoke to Puff yesterday," Joc shared. "My attorneys reached out to Lyor Cohen and the people at Atlantic yesterday. And today all the replies are coming in, and it’s like, maybe we can do this, or maybe we can do that. But until then, I’m going forward with my suit."

The interview is preceded by a clarifying statement from Yung Joc, as well as a statement from Bad Boy. Here it is:


This is unfortunate. I just have a couple of thoughts. First, business is business, so money can heal wounds sometimes, but I have to say that it would seem like it will be challenge to fix this relationship with Joc saying things like "n***** is dummies" when referring to the associated labels and those that run them. He might not have any dispute with Diddy or Bad Boy, but that wasn't exactly delicate, diplomatic wording.

The other thing, and this is something I really don't understand, is how can he be suing Harve Pierre but not Bad Boy? Harve Pierre is the President of Bad Boy and, likely, any decisions he makes would also put Bad Boy at a liability. Joc may have misspoke there. If so, perhaps there will be another clarification on the way. If not, it would not be surprising to see Bad Boy named in this suit, as well, even though his dispute may be with Block Entertainment.

At any rate, these things happen, although they are rarely pretty. So, we'll have to see how this plays out.