Yikes! Chrisette Michele Hit With $20 Million Dollar Lawsuit

Although Chrisette Michele and her label Def Jam tried to get a $20 million lawsuit against them dismissed, it is moving forward. The singer, who recently dropped her latest LP Let Freedom Reign, is being sued by Four Kings Production Inc. who claims Chrisette engaged in unlawful activity to be released from her contract.

HipHopWired reports that Rochelle Brown, Michele's publicist, believes these incidents stem from a relationship issues.

"This is just a case of the jilted lover and gold digging manager getting caught," Brown told Allhiphop in a 2008 interview. "The Payne's and Mr. Berry did not unlawfully try to get Chrisette out of her contract with Four Kings. Mr. Ellison's devious plot to exploit and rip Chrisette off began to be revealed."

The charges are being filed, specifically, by CEO Douglas "Biggs" Elison against Chrisette Michele, Island Def Jam, A&R Shalik Berry and the singer's parents Lynette and Lemuel Payne. 

Biggs makes a statement about his feelings toward Michele's 2007 suit against the CEO she claimed was embezzling money from the singer's Def Jam contract and harassed her.

"As soon as the artist's mother saw that Chrisette was receiving money, all a direct result of the efforts of the production company under its contracts with the artist, Lynette Payne quit her job as a teacher and, in willful disregard of the artist's contractual obligations to Four Kings, usurped management functions regarding her daughter's newly found success, in an effort to keep the money in the family," Ellison stated in the lawsuit. -Niki McGloster