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Chrisette Michele and Def Jam Sued

A lawsuit against Chrisette Michele and her label Def Jam is moving forward, after rejecting Def Jam’s request to dismiss the suit.

Production company Four Kings Production Inc. is suing the songstress for $20 million, claiming the singer engaged in unlawful activity to try to get out of her contract with the entity.

The company’s CEO Douglas “Biggs” Elison is filing the charges against Chrisette Michele, Island Def Jam, A&T Shalik Berry and the singer’s parents Lynette and Lemuel Payne.

It seems Chrisette initiated the suit herself in 2007 when she filed a lawsuit against Four Kings Productions, claiming Biggs was embezzling money from the singer’s Def Jam contract and harassed her.

Despite Michele dropping the suit, Biggs is now stating that his credibility was tainted and he suffered damages when the news went public.

“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 stated in the lawsuit.

Her publicist Rochelle Brown thinks otherwise, sharing that the ordeal was sparked from a romantic mis-hap.

“This is just a case of the jilted lover and gold digging manager getting caught,” Brown told Allhiphop in a 2008 interview. “The Payne’s and Mr. Berry did not unlawfully try to get Chrisette out of her contract with Four Kings. Mr. Ellison’s devious plot to exploit and rip Chrisette off began to be revealed.”

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