Woman Accuses Rich The Kid of Not Paying Her After She Made His Single Artwork

UPDATE (Dec. 17):

Rich The Kid appears to have responded to the visual artist who accused him of not paying her for creating artwork for an unreleased song. On his Instagram Story, Rich wrote that he did not like the cover and he informed Emonee LaRussa that he wasn't going to pay for the artwork because he wasn't pleased with it. He added that he gave compensated her with $500.

Meanwhile, LaRussa told XXL that she is looking to have the issue resolved. She added that she has received messages from the rhymer accusing her of leaking the track that hasn't been released yet.

ORIGINAL STORY:

A woman is putting Rich The Kid on blast for failing to pay her after she claims the rapper hired her to create artwork for one of his songs.

On Wednesday (Dec. 16), a visual artist named Emonee LaRussa posted about the situation on her Instagram Story and her TikTok page.

"So, I've never posted a video like this because this has never happened to me in my entire career," she began before sharing a series of emails and DMs between herself and Rich. "This is Rich The Kid. He hired me to do a cover art and now he refuses to pay me," she continued with Rich's Instagram page in the background of her TikTok video.

She then said, "At the start of the project, I asked if he had any direction. He wanted to give me complete freedom. This is our messages." An email thread between LaRussa and an email user with the name Rich Forever, which is the name of Rich The Kid's label, can be seen at this point in the video.

"I went ahead and created four different variations of graphics for him," LaRussa continued. She also notes that she "paid additional artists to give him more options."

"After days he finally gets back to me," the graphic artist said. "Tells me he wants to change it, but doesn't tell me what he wants to change it to. Instead of giving me art direction, he just tells me to listen to the song again."

She shows another email exchange, which reads, "Just double checking if you would like to send over some revision notes before I send over the invoice. I know you previously spoke about a light deadline so the sooner I can get revision notes the sooner I can get you a finalized cover you like."

The email includes a response from Rich Forever that advises her to listen to the song. The note added, "I want a vibe that all the ladies will like."

LaRussa went on to detail how she sent him more references. "So, instead of going in this blind again, I send him references and he tells me to just do the cover." Here, a DM exchange is shown. While the name of the IG users aren't seen, Rich The Kid's Instagram avatar is visible. In response to the references LaRussa sent, the response said, "Yo Just do the cover and send me You don't have to send me the [concept]."

"So, I go ahead and create three more graphics. He likes it and now he refuses to pay me," she explained. At this point, the visual artist reveals that Rich physically liked the graphics for the cover art by "hearting them." The cover art is for a song called "Nasty" that appears to feature Mulatto, Rubi Rose and Flo Milli.

LaRussa showed a series of unanswered DMs, which appears to include a PayPal invoice, as well as messages from Nov. 19, Dec. 3 and Dec. 10—all inquiring about payment. There's also a fourth message, but it's difficult to decipher the date it was sent. These messages were "liked" as well.

LaRussa claims she even reached out to Rich The Kid's label to ask about payment for her services. The initial DM is dated for Oct. 12. However, in a message dated for Dec. 2, the DM says that they no longer represent Rich.

She concluded the video by saying, "During this entire process, I was extremely professional and patient with him. He hired me to do a service and I did my part. It's like if I hired someone to paint my house, told them to pick any color they want, they paint it and then I'm like, 'Oh, I don't like that color. I'm not going to pay you.' It's just not how you do business."

It appears that after Emonee LaRussa shared the video on her Instagram Story, Rich The Kid deleted all of the uploads from his IG page.

XXL has reached out to Emonee LaRussa and reps for Rich The Kid for a statement on this matter.

See the visual artist's video calling out Rich The Kid for not paying her for creating artwork below.

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