music

Kesha Asks Court for Injunction So She Can Record New Music

Photo: Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images

There’s more news in the ongoing legal battle between Kesha and her producer, Dr. Luke, whom the singer has accused of abuse and sexual assault. On Friday, Kesha’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, sought a court injunction that would allow her to record new music without Dr. Luke or his label, Kemosabe, both of whom the singer is still under contract with. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Geragos gave a New York judge a letter they had sent Sony, Kemosabe’s parent label, asking them to let Kesha start recording a new album for Sony without Dr. Luke, a request Sony rejected. Sony’s lawyer also said it would be inappropriate for them to deal with Kesha any further on the issue, since she is now suing Sony as well for, in effect, supporting Dr. Luke’s behavior and thus putting female artists in “physical danger.”

As Geragos wrote in the legal brief submitted on Friday, “The letters in response indicated both Sony and Dr. Luke believe the exclusivity clauses remain in effect, they will not agree to refrain from enforcement, and Sony specifically will not work with Kesha unless she agrees to work with Kemosabe and Dr. Luke’s company, KMI.” He continued, “Kesha now faces an abysmal decision: work with her alleged abuser … or idly and passively wait as her career tick-tocks away. She is precluded from working in perpetuity because the term of her contract can only be satisfied if she records three more albums. Kesha needs the Court’s assistance.”

Dr. Luke and his representatives have long maintained that the claims against him are false and that the legal moves by Kesha and her lawyers have merely been attempts to get the singer out of her contract, a viewpoint Sony seems to share. (Sony also says it’s been “caught in the crossfire.”) Meanwhile Kesha, in September, emphasized how her career was in peril and reaching a “point of no return” if she remained unable to produce and release new music, and suggested that she had been blacklisted in the industry because of the case.

Kesha Asks Court to Allow Her to Make New Music