Rita Ora Is Suing To Get Away From Jay Z’s Roc Nation Label

Things are getting ugly between Rita Ora and Roc Nation, with the singer taking the Jay Z-owned label to court, claiming that their contract with her is illegal and unenforceable.
The 25-year-old Ora, who joined the label at age 18, has only released one self-titled album, in 2012, which is a lifetime in pop star years. 
In her suit, which sees her attempting to leave Roc Nation, she claims that her career has been overshadowed by “other interests” at the label, and that she has effectively been “orphaned” by them.
Last Thursday, Ora filed papers in the Los Angeles Superior Court, with a complaint that read, in part:
“When Rita signed, Roc Nation and its senior executives were very involved with her as an artist. As Roc Nation’s interests diversified, there were fewer resources available and the company suffered a revolving door of executives. Rita’s remaining supporters at the label left or moved on to other activities, to the point where she no longer had a relationship with anyone at the company.”
The complaint tossed some barbs at the record label arm of Roc Nation, calling it a “diminished” company that currently features “only a handful of admittedly worthy heritage superstar artists.”
The Roc Nation label currently includes Calvin Harris, Rihanna and Kanye West, along with Ora and Jay Z himself, among its signings. The company’s management arm looks after the likes of Grimes and HAIM.
Ora’s complaint goes on to say that the relationship between Roc Nation and her distributor, Sony, is in such a bad state that her own career has been left in a “quagmire of dysfunction.”
In order to free herself from Roc Nation, Ora is citing California Labor Code Section 2855, otherwise known as the Seven Year Rule or the De Havilland Law.
Actress Olivia Dehaviland famously used the code, which stipulates that an exclusive personal services contract is not enforceable beyond seven calendar years, to break free from her contract with Warner Bros in the 1940s. 
Story: BBC News
Photo: Jeff Spicer / Getty

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