T.I. Claims Cinq Recordings Owes Him A $49 Million Discount On His Masters

T.I. just filed a lawsuit accusing a record label of trying to charge him $52 million for his own catalog when the contract says he can buy it back for around $3 million. Here’s how it happened. Back in 2017, a company called Cinq Recordings bought T.I.’s entire Atlantic Records catalog. We’re talking seven albums: […]

T.I. just filed a lawsuit accusing a record label of trying to charge him $52 million for his own catalog when the contract says he can buy it back for around $3 million.

Here’s how it happened. Back in 2017, a company called Cinq Recordings bought T.I.’s entire Atlantic Records catalog.

We’re talking seven albums: Trap Muzik, Urban Legend, King, T.I. vs. T.I.P., Paper Trail, No Mercy, and Trouble Man.

Tip agreed to let the sale happen, but only because Cinq gave him something in return. They put a buy-back option in the deal.

It said T.I.’s company, Grand Hustle, could purchase the catalog later at a price based on a set formula, basically 12 times the net profits the catalog earned over a specific one-year window.

Grand Hustle exercised that option in September 2024, right on schedule. Then they waited. And waited.

Cinq didn’t respond with a price for six months, and only did so after T.I.’s lawyers sent a demand letter. When the number finally came back in March 2025, it was $52 million.

The lawsuit claims Cinq completely ignored the agreed-upon formula to get there. The complaint says Cinq included revenue streams that the formula specifically excludes. such as streaming license fees from Spotify and Apple Music, as well as money earned outside the United States.

At the same time, Cinq allegedly slashed the royalties it was supposed to subtract from the total, which pushed the final price way up.

Run the numbers the right way, the lawsuit argues, and the purchase price lands somewhere between $2.4 million and $3 million.

The part that really stands out is that Cinq wrote the contract itself. The filing makes clear that Cinq drafted the agreement, created the formula, and then refused to follow it when the math came out too low.

The lawsuit says Cinq tried to “extract a purchase price from Plaintiffs that was nearly 20 times higher than the price mandated by the parties’ agreed-upon formula.”

There’s also a detail in the complaint about Cinq slapping a legal disclaimer on its own price calculation, which the lawsuit says proves the company knew it was in the wrong.

T.I. and Grand Hustle aren’t just asking for money here. They want the court to force Cinq to sell them the catalog at the correct price.

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