Nas’ Mass Appeal label settles lawsuit brought by former white employee alleging racial discrimination

Mass Appeal, a record label co-founded by Nas, settles racial discrimination lawsuit brought by former head of development in 2023.

Nas’ record label, Mass Appeal, has just settled a lawsuit brought by a former white employee who alleges she faced racial discrimination during her tenure at the company.

On Friday, June 13, Mass Appeal settled with Melissa Cooper, the company’s former head of development, outside of court and filed a joint motion with Cooper to dismiss the case entirely, Billboard reported. 

While the initial lawsuit did not individually name Nas, Cooper did sue the company’s CEO, Peter Bittenbender, and Mass Appeal’s former content chief, Jenya Meggs. 

In 2023, Cooper sued Mass Appeal, alleging that during her tenure from April 2021 to June 2023, she was met with a “racist conspiracy.” Cooper claims Meggs, who is Black, didn’t hold back in expressing her disdain for a “white woman working in hip hop” and would regularly disparage her in meetings and refuse to work with her. 

According to Cooper, her refusal led to the former development head’s removal from certain projects, including Mass Appeal’s Hip Hop 40 Live concert, before she was eventually fired.

After she was fired, a former romantic partner of Meggs showed Cooper text messages between Meggs and a documentarian producer that contained further “racist” insults toward Cooper, including calling her a “cracker” and complaints about “white folks,” the Hollywood Reporter reported at the time. When Cooper brought the messages to the attention of Bittenbender, she claims he just shrugged them off.

Mass Appeal, Bittenbender, and Meggs “vigorously” deny engaging in discriminatory practices. According to court documents, they said Cooper was fired for financial reasons; at the time, her division had not made a sale in a year. They also claim the infamous text messages of Meggs were taken out of context.  

Once a print magazine, Nas relaunched Mass Appeal in 2014 alongside Bittenbender, and the brand has since evolved into a multi-media company and record label.