Chocolate City rapper, M.I Abaga, on Friday released a new song taking shots at other Nigerian rappers hours after it emerged that he had sued American rapper, Nas, for allegedly failing to deliver a verse he was paid for.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in the New York State Supreme Court last week, Nas is accused of duping Chocolate City after the label had paid the rapper $50,000 for the verse.
According to the lawsuit, in 2013, Nas and Goodman entered an agreement to contribute a verse to a track from M.I.
While Nas did deliver a verse for M.I. to use, the lawsuit contends that the verse in question did not have any of the subject matter or names the two artists had agreed it would have: “M.I, Chocolate City, Nigeria, Queens, New York—NAS’s hometown—, Mandela, Trayvon Martin, and the struggles of Africans and African Americans.”
Chocolate City requested that Nas re-record the verse, which the label says he never did, despite a promise to do so at some point and also despite an upfront payment of $45,000 to him and $5,000 to Goodman as Nas’ agent.
The Nigerian label requested that the Queens rapper re-record the verse, and three year later, he is alleged to have failed to live up to his own part of the agreement. M.I and his team say NAS has failed to respond despite them delivering the $50,000 payment.
Four years have gone by and Nas has yet to deliver the verse, according to Chocolate City, leaving them no choice but to sue.
The label is asking for a refund of their $50,000, along with $1 million in damages relating to lost profits from being unable to market and sell the M.I./Nas collaboration, and punitive damages and attorney’s fees.
On Friday, M.I took to Instagram to delete all his posts to promote his new song titled ‘You Rappers Should Fix Up Your Lives’.
In the song, M.I says having dominated the Nigerian rap scene for a decade, he should be close to retirement but there is no one capable to be his successor.
His lines: “I should be close to retirement but none of you rappers inspiring, none of you pass the requirements, I can’t retire yet then.”
He added that Nigerian rappers are “getting killed” by their South African counterparts, while other rappers are switching to singing. He then urged them to “fix up” their lives.
“You rappers should fix up your life, you all getting killed by the south.
“None of you rappers is real enough, once you blow up now you’re switching up, that’s why these fans are not feeling you all, SA rappers are killing you all.”
