Rapper Young Thug Being Sued by Denton Production Company
In April of 2016, a Denton-based production company, Pentone Productions, booked Young Thug to play at a day-long music showcase called Regardless Fest. Young Thug never showed up to Regardless Fest, causing quite a stir of confusion for the hundreds of people who bought tickets, paid for parking, and drove out to the Hacienda Santa Yesinia in Krum after the show had been moved from the UNT Coliseum.
Young Thug did, however, play in Dallas on May 12, 2016, roughly two weeks after no-showing for the show he was booked to play in Krum.
On Friday, January 13, 2017, Jennifer Brett from AJC.com reported that Young Thug and his booking agency are being sued by Pentone Productions. According to the court document obtained by AJC.com, “To date, none of the Defendants have attempted to reschedule the performance or provide a refund to Plaintiff. Defendants have also failed to respond to Plaintiff’s efforts to either get the Performance rescheduled or get a refund.”
Sara Rashed, a representative of Pentone Productions, confirmed the lawsuit and identified the booking agency tied to Young Thug’s no-show performance last April as Dallas-based BPE Booking. “We aren’t trying to be greedy, we just want back what we put into this,” Rashed says.
According to Rashed, Pentone Productions paid an additional $5,000 in travel costs days before the event. “We had to pull out loans and stuff that we had to pay pack,” she said. Spenser McDade, owner of Pentone Productions, ended up losing his car in the process after taking out a car title loan.
The amount the plaintiff requested is $27,500 in the lawsuit filed on January 13, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia.
“There were a lot of damages that I’m sure Young Thug & his management don’t realize that promoters have to put in because this is a business,” Rashed said.”We just want the money that we put in, we want that back.”
According to Rashed, Young Thug’s flight was originally delayed - not canceled - due to inclement weather in Dallas.
“Our goal was to settle outside of court,” Rashed says, “But they completely ignored all of our attempts to contact them since the concert. Young Thug’s managers actually told us ‘I’m too busy for this, we’re going on tour. I’m too busy to deal with you guys right now.’”
Young Thug nor his management could be reached for comment at the writing of this article.
According to a representative of BPE Booking, the company was unaware of this lawsuit as of Saturday morning.
“I have emails stating this is a management label issue, nothing to do with BPE Booking,” Terral Slack, owner of BPE Booking, said. “They decided not to show up. We did everything on our end. The last time we spoke to their legal team, they were resolving it internally. They weren't dealing with us because we did everything on our end.”
We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
Header image courtesy of Young Thug's Facebook page
Header image design by Sara Button