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June 23, 2025 13 mins
In the lawsuit filed by Rodney "Lil Rod" Jones against Diddy and associated entities, Universal Music Group (UMG) and its representatives, including Martha Brathwaite, have made significant moves to distance the label from the allegations. Jones accuses Diddy of various forms of misconduct, including an alleged shooting incident at a 2022 writing camp. In response, UMG’s legal team, supported by Brathwaite’s declaration, asserts that UMG and Motown Records were not responsible for organizing or providing security for the camp where the alleged shooting took place.

Brathwaite’s declaration clarifies that Diddy’s Love Records, not UMG or Motown, oversaw and financed the camp, arguing that UMG should not be held accountable for any security failures or incidents that occurred. The label’s legal filings aim to have UMG dismissed from the case, contending that Jones is inappropriately attempting to involve the label despite its lack of operational control or direct involvement in the events under dispute.

Additionally, the legal strategy seeks to prevent the lawsuit from being amended further, with UMG lawyers arguing that any additional claims would be futile. The case exemplifies how UMG and other corporate entities named in the lawsuit are seeking to limit their exposure and sever any implied connections to Diddy’s alleged misconduct during these events. This legal push reflects the complexities of liability when artists manage multiple companies across overlapping spheres.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The
Diddy Diaries. In this episode, we're getting right back to
those core documents, and this time we're going to take
a look at the declaration of support by Martha Brathwaite
in support of the motion to dismiss the second amended
complaint by defendants Universal Music Group, Motown Records, and Sir

(00:22):
Lucian Grange, Case Number twenty four DASH one four five seven,
Rodney Jones plaintiff Verse, Shawn Colmes, Justin de Or COOLMBS,
Lucy and Charles Grange, Christina Korum, Challice Recording Studios, Love Records,
Motown Records, Universal Music Group, COLMBS Global Enterprises, John and

(00:44):
Jane Does one through ten and ABC Corporations one through ten.
I Martha Brathwaite declaras follows one. During the time period
applicable to the claims in this action, I was the
executive vice President Business Affairs for the Capitol Music Group,
which is affiliated with UMG Recordings Incorporated, as set forth

(01:04):
in the accompanying declaration of Sir Lucian Grange, UMG Recordings
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. UMG Recordings is incorporated in
the State of Delaware, with its principal operating offices in
Santa Monica, California. UMG Recordings is the principal legal entity
for all recorded music operations in the United States for

(01:24):
the global music and entertainment company known as Universal Music Group.
I have personal knowledge of the facts set forth in
this declaration and have called and sworn as a witness.
I could and would competently testify there too. I am
advised that in the first amended complaint that the plaintiff
in this action claimed that Motown Records was the parent
company of Love Records Incorporated. This assertion was baseless, and

(01:48):
I understand it has now been abandoned by the plaintiff
and his council in the second amended Complaint three. Instead,
I understand that plaintiff and his council, Mister Blackburn, have
substituted an equally false allegation in the sac that Motown
Records and or UMG Recordings is or was in a
general business partnership with Love Records Incorporated and or mister

(02:11):
Colmbs during the relevant timeframe. I was the executive responsible
for handling all of the business and legal affairs for
Motown Records Motown Records is not a separate legal entity,
but a record label that is unincorporated division of UMG Recordings.
Neither Motown Records nor any of the UMG Recordings subsidiaries

(02:31):
or affiliates are, nor were they ever in a general
business partnership or any other kind of partnership with Love
Records Incorporated, mister Colmbs or any of his business entities. Four.
To my knowledge, Love Records Incorporated is the company associated
with Sean Combs, and I believe owned by him, directly
or indirectly. I know this because of the period starting

(02:53):
in or around February twenty twenty two through the beginning
of May twenty twenty two, I negotiated and executed in
arms length license agreement for a limited term on behalf
of Motown Records with Love Records Incorporated, which was dated
May fourth, twenty twenty two. Love Records Incorporated was represented
by Kenny Macellus, who I am aware is Ben Shawn

(03:16):
Combs's longtime transactional council. Five. I'm aware that in the
SAC it's admitted in various paragraphs, including paragraphs thirteen, one
sixty three, and one sixty four, that Motown Records entered
into a license agreement to distribute a Love Records album.
A redacted copy of that license agreement, which I am

(03:36):
informed was provided to mister Blackburn by our council, is
attached here. Two as exhibit A. Six, Paragraphs sixteen eleven
of the license agreement specifically provides as follows, you Love
Records and Artists Combs are entering into this agreement and
are performing your obligations here under as independent contractors. Nothing

(03:58):
herein contemplates or constitutes you or Artists as Motown's partners,
joint venturers, agents, or employees. Seven. As I said before
mister Blackburn was provided a copy of the license agreement,
I do not understand how, in the face of the
play language of this agreement, he can continue to allege
that Motown Records and or UMG Recordings had a general

(04:22):
business partnership with Love Records Incorporated and or mister Combs. Eight.
Because I negotiated the license agreement, I can also address
what I understand is the assertion of plaintiff and his
counsel that no recordings were created by Love Records Incorporated
until at least September of twenty twenty two. This assertion

(04:42):
is completely false. Nine. To begin with, my negotiations with
mister Micellus only began after Ethiopia hab To Mariam, who
was then the chairman and chief executive officer of Motown Records,
attended a listening session at mister colmbs studio to hear
the recordings he had already red recorded and intended to
include on the album that became the subject of the

(05:04):
license agreement. Ultimately, I am aware that mister Combs decided
to record additional tracks beyond the ones he had already recorded. Ten.
During my negotiations with mister Micellis, he advised me that
mister Combs and Love Records Incorporated had already spent several
million dollars in recording and other costs on the album.

(05:25):
As such, one part of my negotiations with mister Micellis
addressed his request for the reimbursement of the costs that
mister Misalis advised had already been incurred by Love Records
Incorporated in recording tracks prior to our negotiations. Motown Records
was not prepared to reimburse all the costs that mister
Misalis advised had been incurred by Love Records Incorporated, particularly

(05:48):
for a distribution deal of a limited duration and no
copyright ownership of the recordings, and we ultimately agreed that
Motown Records would reimburse the sum of one point three million.
This reimburse amount is specifically identified in paragraph seven dot
two A of the license Agreement. Eleven. I am advised

(06:09):
that mister Blackburn, without the slightest basis, alleges that mister
Combs supposedly used the one point three million for sex workers.
It appears this is premised on his completely incorrect assertion
that until plaintiffs showed up in September twenty twenty two,
there had been no recordings made by mister Combs and
no expenses were incurred. Based upon a lack of knowledge

(06:29):
and baseless conclusions, mister Blackburn and the SAC label the
license agreement as a ruse twelve. As I have said,
mister Blackburn is completely incorrect. Not only did mishap to
Marriam listen to the tracks that already been recorded by
mister Colmebs before we entered into the license agreement, Motown

(06:49):
Records also spent a great deal of money marketing and
promoting one of the tracks already recorded by mister Colmbs.
Gotta Move On, which featured Bryson Tiller. Town released a
single recording in or about June twenty twenty two, prior
to the termination of our license agreement, and I understand
it was thereafter also included on the expanded version of

(07:11):
the album that mister Colmebs ultimately completed and released after
the termination of the license agreement. I'm attaching here too,
as Exhibit B, some invoices for expenses incurred and paid
by Motown Records in connection with this recording before September
of twenty twenty two. I do so in order to
show that, contrary to what is asserted in the SAC

(07:34):
and by mister Blackburn, there were tracks already recorded by
mister Colmbs long before September twenty second, and it was
for these already extent tracks that the one point three
million was reimbursing Love Records Incorporated for some of its
recording costs thirteen I understand in the SAC and at
a telephone conference with the Court on April ninth, twenty

(07:56):
twenty two, mister Blackburn also claimed that Motown Recordsords did
not administer any recording budget as provided for in paragraph
four of the license agreement, suggesting instead that Motown Records
simply gave the money to mister Colmbs, which he then
supposedly used to pay for sex workers instead of making recordings. Apparently,

(08:16):
mister Blackburn bases this incorrect conclusion solely on Playdiff's claim
that mister Colmebs allegedly did not pay him Fourteen. Beyond
the fact that money is fungible and there is no
way that mister Blackburn can possibly know how mister Colmbs
used any of the money, his assertion is also again incorrect. Fifteen.

(08:36):
First of all, paragraph for Dot zero two B provided
that Motown Records would administer the budget for the recordings
and pay recording costs. In fact, that is what Motown
Records did. Attached here too, as Exhibit C, are some
illustrative invoices for recording costs that were submitted directly to
Motown Records and paid by Motown Records. Motown paid for

(08:59):
studio time, engineers, and producers. It did not pay cash,
and it did not pay sex workers. Sixteen. I would
also note that paragraph for Dot zero four to A
of the license agreement imposed on Love Records Incorporated, not
on Motown Records the obligation to negotiate, draft, and execute
all producer agreements and the corresponding obligations to pay producers.

(09:22):
Unless Love Records Incorporated requested that Motown Records undertake the
obligation of paying certain producers as reflected in exhibit as
part of the recording costs payable under the license agreement,
Motown did directly pay some of the producers seventeen. In short,
contrary to every uninformed assertion that is made in the

(09:43):
SAC by mister Blackburn at the hearing on April ninth,
twenty twenty four, Motown Records reimburse Love Records Incorporated for
recording costs that Love Records Incorporated actually incurred before the
license agreement was executed and paid marketing and promotion costs
associated with the release of Love Recordings, and it directly

(10:04):
paid recording costs Love Records Incorporated incurred after the license
agreement was executed. And also contrary to what the SAC
and mister Blackburn have alleged, Motown Records did not pay directly, indirectly, intentionally,
or unintentionally any money to sex workers on behalf of
mister Colmbs. The direct payments made by Motown Records. Third

(10:26):
party vendors such as producers, engineers, recording studios, videographers, and
insurance companies were not paid to sex workers, nor were
they paid the Love Records Incorporated, and they're thus not
available to be used by mister Colmbs for the supposedly
improper purposes alleged in the SAC eighteen. I also understand

(10:46):
that the SAC claims that Motown Records, UMG Recordings and
or Lucian Grange somehow profited by virtue of the license agreement.
In fact, as I stated in my original declaration in
support of Emotion to dismiss the fac Z, subsequent to
executing the license agreement, Motown Records and mister Colmbs decided
that Motown Records would not release and distribute the album

(11:08):
that mister Colmebs had created. Accordingly, I negotiated and executed
a separate document that terminated the license agreement, effective as
of February first, twenty twenty three, on behalf of Motown Records.
Under the termination agreement, Motown assigned back to Love Records Incorporated,
on a quit claim basis, all of Motown Records rights

(11:29):
as a license zee in the recordings. The termination agreement
and did any relationship between Love Records Incorporated and mister
Colmbs and on the one hand, UMG Recordings on the
other hand, and mister Colmbs Company. Love Records released the
album independently nineteen. Because Motown Records did not distribute the album,
it had no opportunity to recoup the recording costs and

(11:50):
marketing promotional costs it paid two or on behalf of
Love Records Incorporated, nor did it recoup the reimbursement of
recording costs it paid to Love Records Incorporated under the
license agreement. Thus, far from profiting from the album, the
license agreement was not profitable for Motown Records or UMG Recordings.
Twenty I understand that the claim in the fac that

(12:12):
Motown Records and or UMG Recordings were responsible for the
security at Chalice Recording Studio at which there was allegedly
a shooting and that the security provided was allegedly inadequate
has been abandoned, but that there remained some allegations about
Motown Records, UMG Recordings and or Sir Lucian Grange nevertheless
somehow being responsible for security, whether it is asserted as

(12:36):
a claim or an allegation it is false. Twenty one.
I can confirm that neither Motown Records nor UMG Recordings
were involved for and did not pay for security at
Chalice Recording Studio. Love Records, not Motown Records or UMG Recordings,
was responsible for security at any Love Recordings writer camp,
or a recording session at Chalice Recording Studio or anywhere

(12:58):
else for that matter. Motown Records did pay for studio
time at Chalice Recording Studio, as well as engineers and
producers that work there, but it had no responsibility nor
did it pay for any security. I declare, under the
penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States
of America, that the foregoing is true and correct. This

(13:19):
was signed by Martha Brathwaite and it was dated April eighteenth,
twenty twenty four. All of the information that goes with
this episode can be found in the description box.
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