“Jay Z Double-Crossed Us” Bacardi Claims

American rapper and entrepreneur, one of the most influential figures in hip-hop in the 1990s and early 21st century, Jay-Z has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Bacardi, his partner on the cognac brand D’USSÉ. The rapper and Bacardi have been 50-50 co-owners of D’USSÉ since 2011 and Jay-Z has promoted the cognac over the years, frequently name-dropping it in his tracks.

The lawsuit, made public late Thursday, seeks internal files from D’Usse, which is managed by Empire Investments Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bacardi International Ltd. It was filed by SCLiquor LLC, an entity owned and controlled by Jay-Z, whose given name is Shawn Carter.

The suit seeks to investigate allegations that Empire has for years “artificially held D’Usse back from achieving its full potential,” only to step up its efforts to run the company into the ground in October 20201, after SCLiquor exercised its right to demand a buyout, per Bloomberg Law.

The structure of the buyout rights “gave Bacardi a perverse incentive to mismanage D’Usse in the interim to artificially decrease its valuation for purposes of cashing out SC at an unfairly low price,” according to the complaint in Delaware’s Chancery Court.

According to documents obtained by TMZ Hip Hop, lawyers for Jay-Z’s company SC Liquor are demanding transparency surrounding D’USSÉ.

The lawsuit “says it needs all books and records, the location of all warehouses storing D’Usse barrels, bottles and accessories, as well as all info regarding Bacardi’s physical inventory and its inventory process,” TMZ reported.