Nas’ record label and media company, Mass Appeal, has reached a settlement with a white former executive who claimed that she was discriminated against and forced to leave the company because she’s white.
From Billboard:
Mass Appeal filed a joint motion with its former head of development, Melissa Cooper, in federal court on Friday (June 13), agreeing to dismiss the case entirely. Court filings show that Mass Appeal and Cooper have reached a settlement, although the terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Cooper sued Mass Appeal, CEO Peter Bittenbender and the company’s former content chief, Jenya Meggs, in 2023, claiming she was the subject of a “racist conspiracy” at the company. Nas is not individually named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Cooper is white. Meggs is Black. Cooper claims that Meggs didn’t like her ideas because of her animosity toward a “white woman working in Hip-Hop.” Meggs reportedly refused to work with Cooper and even had her taken off of big projects “…like the planning of Mass Appeal’s Hip Hop 50 Live concert,” Billboard reports.
Cooper was eventually fired from Mass Appeal in June 2023.
After her termination, a messy former lover of Meggs reached out to Cooper to share text messages in which Meggs reportedly referred to Cooper as a “cracker” and criticized “white folk.”
Cooper claimed in her lawsuit that she brought the messages to Bittenbender, but he paid them no mind. Cooper wanted to be reinstated to Mass Appeal and given money for damages for the alleged racism she endured.
Mass Appeal, Bittenbender and Meggs not only deny the claims of discrimination, but they “vigorously” deny any claims made by Cooper and claim that she was fired because her division hadn’t sold any projects. Oh, and about those text messages, they claim they were “taken out of context and are nothing but a red herring.”
Meggs reportedly left Mass Appeal in 2024.