Drake’s apparel company, October’s Very Own (OVO), is locked in a legal feud.
The battle is with an investor who recalled a $3.7 million (£2.8 million) loan, and now claims the rapper’s business owes double that amount.
OVO, the lifestyle brand founded by Drake, his manager Oliver El-Khatib and producer Noah ’40’ Shebib, made a deal last year with Florida-based lending company Applied Real Intelligence (ARI).
Things went sour earlier this year when ARI claimed OVO had defaulted on the loan due to late interest payments and demanded reimbursement. OVO entered into a repayment agreement and paid back $3.7 million (£2.8 million) in May. But ARI insisted Drake’s company pay an additional fee of $3.8 million (£2.9 million) as a consequence for defaulting.
On 2 June, OVO sued ARI in Toronto court, asking a judge to declare that it did not have to pay this additional amount, known as a make-whole fee.
ARI has responded with a lawsuit of its own against OVO, seeking to force OVO to pay the make-whole fee.
Drake’s OVO lifestyle brand, which sports a stylised owl not unlike the Sheffield Wednesday FC logo, is an umbrella for his music, festivals, radio show and merchandise.
His latest album, Iceman, is sitting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a fourth consecutive week, lifting his career total to 41 weeks atop the albums chart.
