Atlantic Records has allegedly been renaming albums mixtapes in order to avoid paying producers the rate they would normally get for an official full length.

E. Dan, a member of the production duo ID Labs recently accused Atlantic of the practice and claims the company also used titles like “compilation album” and “street album” in order to short producers. He recently spoke with Beatstars about it.

The Khalifa album, I don’t know what they called it, a ‘street album’? They came up with some really clever name that essentially meant, ‘Everyone involved, you’re going to get paid half what you normally do.’ I’ve seen it happen often over the last few years. Anything to save a buck for these labels,” he said to Beatstars.

E. Dan went on to explain that he had six production placements on “Khalifa” but ended up being paid a lower rate because it was labeled a “compilation album” by both Wiz and the label. However, it still ended up spawning a Billboard Hot 100 charting with “Bake Sale” that featured Travis Scott. E. Dan also claimed to have a similar issue when working on Snow Tha Product’s

 

“Good Nights and Bad Mornings 2: The Hangover” which was considered a mixtape. “They didn’t treat it like it was an album, which is just their way of not paying me a whole lot,” he said. The allegations sparked a bit of a firestorm with other producers who have experienced the same thing. Sonny Digital and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League both came out and said this is not a problem with just Atlantic and that all labels need to be looked at. Atlantic Records has yet to respond to the allegations publicly.