A Shmurda Mystery: Lies and the Love of Shmoney

by Rob Stiles

What follows is a true story. It’s a timeline created from news reports and public records showing how Bobby Shmurda came to be sued by his own mother, and how his family isn’t really his family.

The History

November 16, 2010

The IRS files a federal tax lien against Bobby Shmurda’s mother, Leslie Pollard a.k.a. Mama Shmurda, for $26,365.29.

December 1, 2010

Mama Shmurda files Articles of Incorporation in New York to form The Seafood Boutique LLC. She opens a seafood restaurant in Brooklyn called M&L Seafood Boutique in Crown Heights, which has a 2.5-star rating on Yelp.

October 5, 2011

A tax warrant is filed with the New York Department of State against Mama Shmurda for $9,477.29.

October 17, 2013

A tax warrant is filed with the New York Department of State against Mama Shmurda for $1,950.10.

March 28, 2014

Music video director Maine Fetti uploads the video for little-known Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda’s song “Hot Nigga” to YouTube. Bobby throws his New York Knicks fitted hat in the air, but footage showing that it landed back on Earth has never been found.

June 24, 2014

The original “Shmoney Dance” clip is posted on Vine.

June 28, 2014

“Hot Nigga” reaches 450,000 views on YouTube. Maine Fetti severely regrets never monetizing his YouTube channel.

July 4, 2014

Bobby performs with Meek Mill at the King of Diamonds strip club in Miami, Florida. Bobby encounters his mother, Mama Shmurda, in the strip club, who claims she just wanted to see the show. Bobby describes the encounter in an interview with Power 105.1's “The Breakfast Club:”

My mom was in [King of Diamonds] with me. I’m like ‘Mom, what you doing in K.O.D? What you doing here?’ ‘I came to see the show’…She flew down there. Yeah, throwing money, watching me getting lap dances and all types of stuff…

“I’m like ‘Ma, get out of here.’”

July 7, 2014

Bobby’s uncle, Christopher “Debo” Wilson, files Articles of Incorporation in the State of Florida to form Hard Tymes Records, Inc. The venture is co-owned by Bobby’s other uncle, Calvin Wilson. The address listed on the company’s founding documents leads to a check-cashing store.

July 14, 2014

“Hot Nigga” reaches 1.8 million views on YouTube. NYPD arrive at Maine Fetti’s fifth-story walkup in Brooklyn after receiving reports of an unarmed Black male throwing a laptop computer out of a window. Fetti unleashes a profanity-filled rant about YouTube monetization at one police officer.

July 18, 2014

Bobby Shmurda signs an approximately $2 million recording contract with Epic Records. Bobby also shucks ‘n jives atop a conference room table for the label’s CEO and fellow Black person, L.A. Reid, to celebrate the deal.

As part of Bobby’s recording deal, Articles of Incorporation were filed in the State of Florida to form GS9 Records LLC. The documents list Bobby as the company’s manager, but the principal address belongs to the law offices of Theo Sedlmayr, the entertainment lawyer of such rappers as Rick Ross, Eminem and 50 Cent.

July 23, 2014

Mama Shmurda files paperwork in the State of Florida to form Shine Bright Management LLC. The filing lists Mama Shmurda as the manager of the company, and it also lists Uncle Debo as an “authorized member.” In Florida, a taxable LLC can earn up to $250,000 without having to justify (and pay a higher tax rate on) its accumulated earnings.

August 27, 2014

Bobby Shmurda files paperwork with the State of Florida to fire Theo Sedlmayr from GS9 Records, making himself the sole manager.

October 2014

Bobby posts a video on Instagram complaining about not getting paid for his concerts. Mama Shmurda comments on her son’s rant in a Billboard article, stating that Bobby doesn’t know how the music business works. The article also mentions how Mama Shmurda has been acting as Bobby’s manager for 2 months, and explains how Bobby gets paid for concerts. According to Mama Shmurda:

“There’s a chain of command that he has to go through before he gets his payment. I guess he’s thinking all the money should go from the front man to his hands — it doesn’t work like that … They hold onto it so he actually does the show. Then it goes to his business manager, then to the touring accountant, and then to him.”

December 5, 2014

Bobby reports on his Instagram that “Hot Nigga” has been certified Platinum by the RIAA for selling 1,000,000 copies. Assuming the song sold for $0.99, Bobby likely earned about $400,000 after taxes, less any percentage cuts he had to give distributors.

December 16, 2014

Bobby Shmurda is arrested in New York at Quad Recording, the same studio where Tupac Shakur was shot in 1994.

December 18, 2014

Bobby Shmurda is named in a 68-count indictment for murder, attempted murder, and drug-dealing alongside other members of his GS9/G Stone Crips gang.

Bobby was specifically charged with four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and two counts of criminal possession of a firearm. He is sent to jail at Rikers Island and eventually moved to the Manhattan Detention Complex.

December 30, 2014

While in jail, Bobby is served papers from JAMS, a private arbitration and alternative dispute resolution company. Bobby is notified that Shine Bright Management demands arbitration and plans to sue Bobby for $1,000,000.

Bobby’s Uncle Debo claims that Shine Bright Management hasn’t received payment for arranging Bobby’s concerts, and that Debo is being held liable by promoters for the shows Bobby cancelled. Uncle Calvin also claims that he and Debo helped Bobby negotiate his $2 million recording contract with Epic Records, and paid $80,000 to have “Hot Nigga” played on the radio.

Since Shine Bright Management is actively managed by Mama Shmurda,
Bobby is being sued by his own mother.

The Lawsuit

Arbitration is different from a traditional lawsuit, in that it doesn’t have to go through the U.S. court system but the decision is legally binding as far as the U.S. court system is concerned. The Wikipedia describes it as such:

The parties to a dispute refer it to arbitration by one or more persons (the “arbitrators”, “arbiters” or “arbitral tribunal”), and agree to be bound by the arbitration decision (the “award”). A third party reviews the evidence in the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding on both sides and enforceable in the courts.

There are two types of arbitration: voluntary or mandatory. Voluntary arbitration means two people agree to have a third party review their dispute. Mandatory arbitration usually only arises from some sort of contractual dispute (e.g. as a result of a contract Bobby signed at some point.)

The Motive

Mama Shmurda has several tax liens. Since Shine Bright Management LLC is listed as the party in the arbitration, Mama Shmurda presumably wouldn’t have to pay taxes on the first $250,000 she received from Bobby’s back payments. She could use some of that money to knock out her tax liens, then spend the rest on whatever she wants.

The Inconsistencies

1.

In a New York Times article on February 23, 2015, Mama Shmurda stated that she was visiting Bobby in jail twice a week and working towards posting his bail. Bobby also noted in a phone call to HOT97's “Ebro in the Morning” show that his mother was sending him commissary money, stating “I’m asking my mom and shit for money, for real.”

This suggests that Mama Shmurda is a bit two-faced, in that she may be sending commissary money to Bobby with the one hand, but her Shine Bright Management company is suing Bobby with the other. Who knows if she actually gives a damn about bailing Bobby out.

2.

In all of their media statements, Uncle Debo & Mama Shmurda have consistently claimed that Bobby’s family was serving him in some management capacity.

Aside from Uncle Debo’s demand for arbitration, which may be total horseshit, there’s no evidence to suggest that Bobby signed any business contract with Shine Bright Management. And even if the family was managing his career, negotiated his Epic Records contract and got “Hot Nigga” on the radio, all of that work had to occur prior to his July 18 deal with Epic Records.

But Shine Bright Management didn’t even exist until July 23, a week after Bobby signed with Epic.

It’s literally impossible for Bobby to have signed any sort of contract with Shine Bright Management before the company even existed. Anything he did sign probably wouldn’t hold up in court — which is a good reason for why Uncle Debo is pursuing arbitration instead of an actual lawsuit. This also suggests that Bobby Shmurda’s family members are, at best, a little disingenuous in describing how much they helped him.

3.

Uncle Calvin has maintained that Bobby Shmurda is still a contractually signed artist under Hard Tymes Records.

There are several issues with his claim:

• Hard Tymes was founded on July 7, and Bobby signed to Epic Records on July 18. Calvin wants us to believe that Bobby signed to one record label, then signed to another label 11 days later. He’s basically trying to suggest that Bobby doesn’t know how the music business works and signed two contracts, or that he sipped enough lean to destroy his long-term memory.
• If Bobby signed a contract with Hard Tymes, why isn’t the company listed as a party in Uncle Debo’s lawsuit?
• Hard Tymes is running out of a fucking check-cashing store.

Since it was literally impossible for Bobby to sign to Shyne Bright Management before he got a record deal, and Hard Tymes isn’t listed on the lawsuit, the only logical conclusion is that Bobby likely never signed any contracts and Uncle Debo is seeking voluntary arbitration.

All of this suggests that Uncle Debo’s case is basically just hoping Bobby doesn’t know what the word “voluntary” means, and enters into the arbitration anyway.

4.

It’s terribly convenient that 25 days after Bobby announced he sold 1,000,000 copies of “Hot Nigga” at about $1.00 each, his Uncle Debo files a lawsuit for exactly $1,000,000.

When you do the math, there’s no way Bobby made $1,000,000 from concert tickets. According to SongKick, Bobby performed at 12 concerts from September 28, 2014 to December 13, 2014 before he was arrested. Assuming a ticket price of $30 for concert, and a generous attendance of 2,000 (because fire marshalls), that means Bobby grossed:

$30 x 2,000 tickets = $60,000 per concert

$60,000 per concert x 12 concerts = $720,000

But Bobby sometimes wasn’t the only performer at these concerts, and part of the ticket sales goes directly to the venue. Considering that Uncle Debo’s entire case rests on the claim that Bobby cancelled some of those shows and cost the venue money, it becomes mathematically improbable for Bobby to have left Uncle Debo liable for anything near $1,000,000.

5.

During Bobby’s March 2015 phone call from jail to HOT97's “Ebro In The Morning” show, Bobby revealed that Uncle Debo is not his real uncle:

“That nigga a lie, that nigga ain’t my real uncle. That’s the nigga always trying to rob me on some shit. That nigga a lying ass nigga man. That nigga trying to sue me right now while I’m in jail and everything.”

The real tragedy in this whole story is that a strange man has infiltrated Bobby Shmurda’s family and is looking to steal all of his money. You’d think that Mama Shmurda, as a loving mother and owner of the company suing her son, would try and put a stop to it all. The fact that she hasn’t suggests she either doesn’t know what Debo is doing, or just doesn’t care because she’s really the one who wants the money.

Whether Bobby’s gangster lifestyle as depicted in his rhymes is accurate is neither here nor there. If his own mother has turned on him, he won’t have much of a lifestyle to speak of. Or, he might just get convicted and never touch any of his money anyway. This rap stuff always seems to work itself out like that.