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Lil Wayne’s Sues Former Manager

New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne is being sued by his former manager. The legal dispute stems from his manager’s abrupt termination after booking a hotel room in Miami that was not up to par.

Melissa Philipian, president of White Tides Entertainment of Miami Beach, alleged that 23-year-old hip-hop artist Dwayne Carter, also known as Lil Wayne, abruptly fired her after determining that the hotel room she booked for him was unacceptable.

She filed a lawsuit that claims the rapper is refusing to pay her at nearly $500,000 in back commissions after firing her. Philipian is reportedly owed a total of 15 percent of his earnings over the next two years, according to the contract that Lil Wayne signed with her company in June 2005. 

The lawsuit was filed in Miami‘s U.S. District Court on Wednesday, April 5.

”We’re probably looking at damages in excess of $1 million,” said the Philipian’s lawyer, Richard Wolfe, of Wolfe & Goldstein in Miami.

According to the lawsuit, Lil Wayne’s three-year contract with White Tides Entertainment only allows him to end the agreement in writing after one-year of service for specified contract breaches. 
 
“The quality of a hotel room does not qualify as a reason to end the contract, so Lil Wayne is liable to pay White Tides for the next two years,” Wolfe told Miami-Herald. .

Some hip-hop lovers feel that the situation is a result of the rapper’s recent success of his fifth album in the music charts. His latest album, Tha Carter II, debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 and has reached double-platinum status. Although the rapper has been making music since the age of seventeen, his latest release has been his most successful one yet.

“Lil Wayne is on top right now, he’s hot. He’s also very cocky, so it’s no surprise that he would fire his manager over something like this,” said Andrina Jackson, a freshman majoring in public relations at Howard University.

There are others that believe that the rapper is getting too big for himself. They believe that artists of today are too conceited. Some feel that his statements and actions, as well as other well-known artists like Kanye West, are getting out of hand.

“He’s making a lot of money now, and most times when artists reach his level of success, it goes to their heads,” said Charde Kelly, a junior majoring in finance at Howard University