XXXTentacion’s mother, Cleopatra Bernard, is counter-suing one of the late rapper’s former friends and collaborators. James H. Duval, who produced X’s hit “Look At Me,” previously sued the late rapper’s estate for $2 million, seeking proper producer and songwriting credits and royalties from their collaborations. However, according to The Blast, Bernard has now responded to the producer with a lawsuit of her own.
The outlet reports that Bernard has filed a suit against Duval and Stache Records and demands that the $2 million lawsuit be dismissed. She also wants her attorney fees to be paid for by the producer.
According to Bernard, Duval and X had previously entered into a deal in regard to their collaboration royalties, where they had each agreed that X would earn 50 percent of the royalties and Duval and another producer would each be entitled to 25 percent.
Bernard’s suit continues to claim that X and Duval’s original agreement did not guarantee him co-author credits.
“Defendants also allege that Duval did not receive an appropriate producer credit for his production work on the Recording. However, Defendants’ claim reveals a complete lack of understanding as to the music industry’s current mechanism for attributing producer credit,” her suit reads. “It is undisputed that the Recording was only released digitally. It is well known that, up until very recently, the vast majority of digital content providers, such as Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, SoundCloud, etc., did not have a mechanism by which producers could be credited.”
The suit further seeks “a declaratory judgment confirming that there is no fiduciary duty owed by Onfroy to Defendants, and further that no such fiduciary duty has been breached.”
Bernard hopes the court will order that her son’s estate owes nothing to Duval, including royalties.
Last year, X’s first posthumous album, Skins, was released by his estate. This year, X has posthumously released XXXTentacion Presents: Members Only, Vol. 4, the ? deluxe version and Bad Vibes Forever.