T-Pain sues Akon’s record label, claiming unpaid royalties

Atlanta rapper T-Pain is suing the record label co-founded in Georgia by singer Akon, claiming he’s owed almost $500,000 in unpaid royalties for his recent music sales.

It is the second time that T-Pain, whose real name is Faheem Rashad Najm, has sued Konvict Entertainment LLC in Fulton County Superior Court, alleging the company failed to pay him what he’s owed under a 2005 recording agreement.

The current lawsuit, filed Friday, alleges Konvict Entertainment owes T-Pain $489,047 from a $1.3 million royalties payment it received at the end of March from a distributor.

T-Pain claims the record label, the only defendant in the case, is in breach of his recording agreement as well as a 2025 settlement agreement that resolved the first lawsuit, filed in 2018.

Konvict Entertainment and lawyers for T-Pain did not respond Monday to inquiries about the new case.

The record label denied liability in T-Pain’s 2018 lawsuit but agreed to pay him $114,000 as part of the 2025 settlement, following years of mediation, court records show. The settlement resolved royalties collected through the end of 2024.

In his new lawsuit, T-Pain said he is entitled, under the recording agreement and the settlement, to 75% of the net royalties Konvict Entertainment receives from distributors for his record sales.

The Grammy-winning rapper claimed the company received $1,304,127 in such royalties in late March from a distributor, for sales in the second half of 2025. He added that he received additional royalties directly from the distributor for his album titled “Freaknik: The Musical.”

T-Pain claimed that half the royalties received in March by Konvict Entertainment were paid to one of its affiliate labels, BuVision, which is not a defendant in the case.