The 25-year-old singer and X Factor Judge, Rita Ora, filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z's record label, Roc Nation, in an attempt to break her contract with the company.
"Rita's relationship with Roc Nation is irrevocably damaged," read the complaint filed by Ora in Los Angeles on Thursday. "Fortunately for Rita, the California legislature had the foresight to protect its artists from the sorts of vicissitudes she's experienced with Roc Nation."
According to the report from Mirror, Ora cited the Labour Code §2855, or also known as the 'Seven Year Rule' or the "De Havilland Law," which was also used by actress Olivia De Havilland in 1944 when she filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros.
Ora joined Roc Nation in 2008 when she was still 18 years old. Howard King, Ora's attorney, hopes that the court may see that the circumstances in Olivia's case against Warner can also be applied to Ora's case against Roc Nation.
"When Rita signed, Roc Nation and its senior executives were very involved with her as an artist. As Roc Nation's interests diversified, there were fewer resources available and the company suffered a revolving door of executives," the complaint stated. "Rita's remaining supporters at the label left or moved on to other activities, to the point where she no longer had a relationship with anyone at the company."
In a report from NME, the complaint also called Roc Nation as a "diminished" record label with "only a handful of admittedly worthy heritage superstar artists." NME also stated that the music of Ora is still distributed by Sony, even after the label switched distribution partners to Universal in 2013.
"Between Sony's limited economic return from its orphaned relationship with Roc Nation and Sony's indirect relationship with Rita, Rita is caught in a political quagmire of dysfunction," the complaint stated.