Jada Kingdom’s Boyfriend Verse Simmonds Slaps Kanye West’s Manager With $3 Million Copyright Lawsuit

Jada Kingdom’s boyfriend Verse Simmonds, has slapped Kanye West’s manager Abou “Bu” Thiam with a $3 million copyright lawsuit in a Fulton County court in Georgia, USA.

According to Verse, Thiam, who is also superstar Akon’s brother, worked together with him on several major songs in the 2010s, for which the Dominican Republic-born producer/singer claims he has never been paid, despite the songs being huge hits.

According to Simmonds’ attorneys Walker and Associates, the producer has been in a “fight for freedom” from a “bad contract with Bu Thiam” and worked for years trying to get the matter resolved.  The attorneys also stated that “this was not the first time they have had to demand that Thiam pays their clients in a dispute over his business practices”.

The lawsuit, which was filed on October 9 and which Verse describes as an ‘amended complaint’, states that he is demanding a jury trial to recover from Thiam “a sum in the amount to be determined by the jury, or in any amount that would fairly compensate” him for the losses sustained as determined by the court, but “not be less than $3 million”.

Also listed as defendants on the suit is Thiam’s associated companies Bu Vision LLC, Konvict Entertainment, and Bu Music Publishing.  Among other things, the suit also demands that Thiam “divests himself of any interest in any enterprise or intellectual property associated with the compositions including all profits made or royalties collected” by him.

Simmonds has been making a series of posts on his social media pages highlighting the matter over the past month.

In one of the posts, he noted that he had tried to reach a settlement with Thiam, to no avail, and so had to take the case before the jury.

“FYI … Today, my lawyers filed a $3 million dollars amended complaint against Bu Thiam and his companies. We were hopeful we could settle this matter, however, we gotta do what we gotta do. I have written hits for the likes of too many major artist to just let this slide and at this point, we have to take it to the courts….Whatever the outcome at least we doing what’s right!” Verses said on October 9.

Verse also dragged Kanye into the mix, claiming his association with Thiam belies his supposed mission to assist artistes in getting back their masters (the official original recording of a song).

“Have a real question.  How is @KANYEWEST tryna help artist get their masters back while his right hand man Bu has the some of the worst contracts & does some of the most shady business in the music industry ?” he declared on a September 26 post.

“Since I did business in 2011 with Bu I have yet to get my muf__kin money! Imagine writing songs like “New flame @chrisbrownofficial ft @usher and @richforever ,love more ft @nickiminaj ,drunk texting ft @jheneaiko, songs on 12 play ft @treysongz … yet never getting 1 penny from my publishing on any of these records! Every record I just named is gold or better! Now think about how much money that is that was stolen from me! And I’m not no 5-10% writer!.every record I controlled the majority of the publishing!” he said.

In another post that same day, Verse ripped into Akon whom he said had failed to speak to his brother on his behalf about the longstanding issue, after he made contact with him on February 17 and  March 26.  He posted a screenshot of his messages to Akon, the last of which went unanswered, noting that Akon had only contacted him after getting wind that the lawsuit was filed.

“Yo @akon I’m not ur f__kin lil bro dawg!.. I’m a grown fu__kin man that wants his money! look at the dates! Now I got n-ggas attn huh?! Where was everyone at when I was tryna get this sh_t done on the low and move on?!? Now u wanna call me?!?! From since before Feb I been asking u to help me sort this out ! Look at the DATES!! I don’t wanna talk unless its money talk.. and y’all can hit my lawyer for that.. my time to talk to y’all n-ggas is done. Y’all got my lawyers # and email,” he wrote.

Simmonds, who is based in Los Angeles, California, was born in Puerto Rico and raised in the US Virgin Islands.  As a young boy, he performed in plays and talent shows and started writing music as teen. He later moved to Florida as a teenager, to pursue a career in music. His first major production gig was for rapper AK Sent.

Having moved to the US after high school, he formed the production duo the Jugganauts in the 1990s, and co-wrote and produced tracks such as Rihanna’s Man Down and Who Gon Stop Me by Kanye West and Jay-Z.

He also wrote Justin Bieber’s Confident, Chris Brown’s New Flame by Chris Brown, Usher and Rick Ross which was nominated for Best R&B Song at the 2015 Grammy Awards.

Verse recently teamed up with Jada Kingdom to release the R&B track,  Bedroom Bully , from his now-released Rude Boy album, which also features a collab with Jamaican deejay, Sean Paul.

He also featured on Beenie Man’s 21-track Unstoppable album in 2016, in a track titled Stuck on You.