Bad Boy Chiller Crew have filed legal proceedings against their label House Anxiety in the UK high court seeking approximately £400,000 in allegedly unpaid royalties.
The lawsuit also alleges breach of contract relating to royalty reporting obligations and claims that the group’s deal with the indie label, which released their 2020 mixtape ‘Full Wack No Brakes’, is now terminated.
The dispute over the status of the group’s record deal kicked off earlier this year after they self-released a new single and EP in June. House Anxiety insisted that that independent release breached its contract with the group, resulting in the new music being removed from Spotify.
Commenting on the legal action, the band told the BBC, “Like all other bands, we don't look for litigation, but when faced with a label that won't let us put our own music out ourselves for our fans and not pay us royalties owed from our own music, we felt we had no other option”.
The label’s founder Jaimie Hodgson says that he “totally refutes” the group’s claims and welcomes the lawsuit as an “opportunity to clarify these inaccuracies”.
The more recent Bad Boy Chiller Crew albums - 2022’s ‘Disrespectful’ and 2023’s ‘Influential’ - were released by Sony Music allied Relentless Records, but under licence from House Anxiety.
Hodgson references that fact in the rest of his statement, saying, “As an artist-friendly independent label, we remain hugely proud of every element of ‘Full Wack No Breaks’ and all the hard work that went into its campaign, then stepping aside to allow Bad Boy Chiller Crew to pursue their dreams of being a major label artist”.
According to the claim, House Anxiety was contractually obliged to provide royalty reporting every six months, but the group only got their first round of reporting in October this year. They allege that this is when they discovered that “vast sums” had been deducted by the label, and that the £217,000 House Anxiety received through the label’s licensing deal with Relentless had not been included.
The band say that they cannot currently calculate what they are owed by the label because they need sight of a full set of accounts, but they believe it will amount to at least £400,000.