Chance the Rapper’s former manager is demanding $3 million (£2.2 million) in unpaid commissions in a new lawsuit.
Pat Corcoran, known as Pat the Manager, alleges the hip-hop star, full name Chancelor Bennett, ignored his advice regarding the timing for release of his debut album The Big Day, and then fired the representative following the 2019 project’s poor performance.
In court papers filed in Cook County, Illinois on 30 November, Corcoran claims the independent rapper, who was riding high on the success of his three early mixtapes, had to rush the album out after prematurely announcing the release date before he had even written or recorded any of the material – even though its scheduled launch was just five months away.
Corcoran goes on to explain: “Procrastination and lackadaisical effort, perpetuated by various hangers-on uninterested in the hard work of writing and recording, resulted in a freestyle-driven product of subpar quality.”
The Big Day debuted at number two on America’s Billboard 200 chart, but failed to meet many fans and critics’ expectations, and led to Chance scrapping plans for a subsequent promotional tour at the last minute.
According to Corcoran, he had been urging Chance to pull out of the live shows immediately after the album disappointment, but he waited until just five days before its launch to delay the gigs, and then cancelled them completely.
Corcoran was eventually fired in April, with Chance appointing his brother, fellow rapper Taylor Bennett, and their father, Ken Williams-Bennett, to oversee his career, despite having “little to no experience in the music industry”.
His former manager believes he was used as a scapegoat for the flop album, “rather than accept that his own lack of dedication had doomed the project”, and claims Chance is now refusing to pay for work completed during his term as manager, with Williams-Bennett offering him a total of $350,000 (£260,400) to settle the dispute.
Chance has yet to comment on the legal action.
