{"id":8313,"date":"2025-10-25T04:11:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/muni-long-faces-lawsuit-from-ex-managers-over-unpaid-commissions\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T04:11:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:11:52","slug":"muni-long-faces-lawsuit-from-ex-managers-over-unpaid-commissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/muni-long-faces-lawsuit-from-ex-managers-over-unpaid-commissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Muni Long Faces Lawsuit From Ex-Managers Over Unpaid Commissions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tMuni Long\u2019s former managers are suing the singer for refusing to pay more than $600,000 worth of promised fees, though the Grammy-winning R&B star\u2019s team calls the claims \u201cunfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLong (Priscilla Renea Hamilton) is facing breach of contract claims from Ebony Son Entertainment, the Atlanta-based management company run by Chaka Zulu<\/strong> and Jeff Dixon<\/strong>. The duo is best known for managing Ludacris, with whom they started the record label Disturbing Tha Peace in 1998.<\/p>\n

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\n\tEbony Son claims in a Thursday (Oct. 23) federal court complaint that Zulu and Dixon\u2019s hard work was instrumental to Long\u2019s success, including her win for Best R&B Performance at the Grammy Awards this year. But Long fired her managers in January and now owes hefty commissions from live shows and recording and writing gigs, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDefendant Priscilla Renea Hamilton is publicly known as the musical artist \u2018Muni Long\u2019 but her less well-known performances are as a serial grifter,\u201d reads the lawsuit. \u201cAfter taking the benefit of plaintiff\u2019s elite and highly sought-after management services for more than a year, Muni Long shamelessly reneged on her promises to pay plaintiff the agreed-upon, customary percentage of revenue she earned, and only earned because plaintiff assisted in obtaining those engagements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLong\u2019s team denies the claims as \u201cunfounded\u201d in a statement to Billboard <\/em>on Friday (Oct. 24). The team says it\u2019s \u201cdeeply unfortunate that the matter could not be resolved privately and professionally,\u201d claiming Long made \u201cgood faith\u201d settlement offers even though \u201cno formal contract ever existed\u201d with Ebony Son.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cThe situation has been particularly distressing, as it involves the same team that took possession of the artist\u2019s phone and sought to have her involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, despite medical confirmation that she was suffering from a Lupus flare-up,\u201d says Long\u2019s team in the statement. \u201cAll appropriate avenues are being pursued to ensure that the truth is fully and fairly defended. The artist hopes this underscores the importance to all those in creative fields to safeguard their personal and professional boundaries and be discerning about those they trust to represent them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tZulu and Dixon have been battling with Long in court since July, when the managers first leveled allegations over the unpaid commissions in a California state court complaint. That state court case was withdrawn just days before Ebony Son took the claims to federal court.<\/p>\n

\n\tLong broke onto the R&B scene in 2022 with her hit single \u201cHrs and Hrs,\u201d which spent 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at No. 16 on the chart. She signed with Def Jam Recordings that year, and \u201cHrs and Hrs\u201d won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance at the 2023 ceremony.<\/p>\n

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\n\tAccording to Thursday\u2019s lawsuit, Long had her first meeting with Zulu and Dixon at New Orleans\u2019 ESSENCE Festival of Culture in July 2023. During this meeting, the managers say, Long allegedly agreed to pay the duo 20% of all her gross revenue and reimburse all management-related expenses.<\/p>\n

\n\tZulu and Dixon say they began putting in work for Long \u201cwithin days of being hired,\u201d ensuring that her 2024 album Revenge <\/em>was released before the Grammys cutoff date. This made it possible for Long to win another Best R&B Performance Grammy that year for her song \u201cMade for Me,\u201d the lawsuit claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe managers allege Long paid her required commissions and reimbursements for over a year, but that she \u201cpurportedly became unhappy\u201d with the amount of the fees and ultimately stopped all payments in October 2024. In January, they say she officially cut ties with Ebony Son.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPlaintiff, who worked tirelessly to advance Muni Long\u2019s career, [has] secured over $5 million in revenue for defendants to date,\u201d says the complaint. \u201cBut as to a significant percentage of this revenue, defendants have failed to pay plaintiff the corresponding commission payments as required by the agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tZulu and Dixon claim Long owes more than $600,000 worth of commissions and expenses from the money she made via live shows, a $1 million ASCAP publishing deal, songwriting agreements with Shenseea and Tiwa Savage, and features on tracks by Teddy Swims and Toosi.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit says Long also owes fees on other sources of revenue that Zulu and Dixon have not yet been able to fully audit, including the money she made opening for Chris Brown on the 11:11 Tour in 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnrelatedly, Zulu was criminally charged with murder in 2022 for shooting a man during an altercation in Atlanta. The charges were later dropped<\/a> after prosecutors determined that Zulu was acting in self-defense.<\/p>\n

\"Billboard<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muni Long\u2019s former managers are suing the singer for refusing to pay more than $600,000 worth of promised fees, though the Grammy-winning R&B star\u2019s team calls the claims […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4667,6943,458,303,947,6942,1921],"class_list":["post-8313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-commissions","tag-exmanagers","tag-faces","tag-lawsuit","tag-long","tag-muni","tag-unpaid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}