Douglas “Biggs” Ellison has filed a $20 million dollar lawsuit against Island Def Jam, claiming the label attempted to steal R&B artist Chrisette Michele from his Queens-based production company, Four Kings Productions Inc. Ellison filed the lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court, claiming that Island Def Jam Music Group, Shalik Berry (A&R) and Michele’s parents Lynette and Lemuel Payne engaged in unlawful business practices in an attempt to get the Grammy nominated singer out of her exclusive contracts with Four Kings. “As soon as the artist’s mother saw that Chrisette was receiving money, all a direct result of the efforts of the production company under its contracts with the artist, Lynette Payne quit her job as a teacher and, in willful disregard of the artist’s contractual obligations to Four Kings, usurped management functions regarding her daughter’s newly found success, in an effort to keep the money in the family,” Ellison claims in the lawsuit.  Continue Reading

Def Jam did nothing with Chrisette. I mean one minute she was billed as being the next big singing sensation, then all went silent after her album dropped.