David Banner Is Suing Lil Wayne

We're settling into the idea of Lil Wayne as the plaintiff. The New Orleans native has spent the last several months locked in a legal battle with Bryan "Birdman" Williams, his longtime friend, mentor and label boss, who has refused to release Wayne's Tha Carter V on Cash Money Records. It's gotten contentious, to put it lightly: there are allegations of years of unpaid royalties, a $50 million lawsuit against Tidal over Wanye's Free Weezy Album, even the implication that Birdman was somehow behind a plot to murder Wayne. But in the midst of all this, Weezy is on the receiving end of a suit. According to TMZ, the Mississippi rapper and producer is seeking royalties from his work on "La La" and "Pussy Monster," both of which appeared on Wayne's massive 2008 album Tha Carter III. Banner says that in 2012, Young Money told him he was owed $138,787 for the two songs; the label has since gone silent on him, and he doesn't know what the total has run to at present. Banner claims he's also owed $15,000 for "Streets Is Watching," the Wayne, Jae Millz and Gudda Gudda collaboration from the 2009 compilation We Are Young Money.

Fans will remember that "Pussy Monster" replaced "Playing With Fire" when the latter was removed from the album's retail version over a copyright dispute. Banner's commercial breakthrough came five years prior, when he produced T.I.'s "Rubberband Man" and dropped his major label debut, Mississippi: The Album, which was backed by "Cadillacs on 22s" and the Lil Flip-assisted "Like a Pimp."