Mary J. Blige Slaps Talent Agency With New Lawsuit Over Unpaid Festival Fee
Mary J. Blige has taken legal action against a talent agency in Florida, alleging an unpaid concert appearance fee from a performance at Funk Fest in Miami in 2022.
According to court documents obtained by HipHopDX, the contract for Mary J. Blige’s appearance at the festival involved an agreement between MJB Touring, her booking company, and the RM Talent Agency, in which Blige was set to receive a fee of $1.1 million.
The filing states that Blige received partial payments: $250,000 on September 20, 2022, $200,000 on November 9, 2022, and another $200,000 on January 18, 2023. However, there remained an outstanding balance of $450,000, which Blige claims has not been paid.
On Thursday, September 7, the complaint was submitted to the Florida Middle District Court, with Judge Paul G. Byron assigned to adjudicate the matter. Check out the filing below.
Mary J. Blige has faced various legal challenges in the past, including tax-related issues that she addressed in June. During her appearance at the 2nd annual Strength Of A Woman Festival in Atlanta, she discussed her experience dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, which accused her of owing $1,198,161 in back taxes. Blige revealed that her tax troubles were more severe than initially believed and emphasized the importance of financial literacy.
Reflecting on her past, Blige shared, “Speaking of taxes, I owed so much money I never thought I’d ever get out of debt. I’m out of debt now, but I mean I owed hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. Now I have the wisdom, now I look at my payroll that’s not my money. My taxes are not my money … so I’m like, ‘Pay my payroll, pay my taxes, pay my tithes, all of that money I don’t even wanna see it because it doesn’t belong to me.'”
She continued, “And that’s how I was moving, period. I was moving like that, period, but no one listened to me. When I was married, I was like, ‘Pay my taxes, pay my tithes,’ but they didn’t listen to me. He was in control of everything.”
