Rod Wave is speaking out after being hit with a lawsuit from a touring company claiming he owes $27 million for an unfinished tour.
During a recent appearance on the Joe Budden Podcast, the Last Lap artist opened up about his frustrations with touring, ticketing companies, and resellers.
“The tour ticket shit so crazy because I could tell the people, ‘Hey, I want to sell this ticket for $55, $85.’ They could do whatever the fuck they want to do with it—motherfucker gone be 300,” Rod said around the 31:45 mark. “I want this shit to be affordable for people,” he continued. “I can’t control that.”
He went on to call out ticketing companies and resellers, saying they’re “with the bullshit.”
“That’s why I’m taking this step to gain as much control over this side of my career as I can,” Rod Wave continued. “Like on the touring side, ‘cause I built this shit up from the ground. I remember going to Oakland, California with 80 people at my concert in 2018, 2019. To fast forward—18,000.
“I built this shit up from the ground. So I can’t just put this shit in your hands, man, and let you do it. You don’t give a fuck about these people. You ain’t never even heard my song. You just want to make the money. You see the numbers, right? You don’t give a fuck. You putting random ass people on my tour ‘cause the numbers they doing and this shit don’t even make sense.”
In September, weeks before the $27 million lawsuit surfaced, Rod announced he was launching his own touring company, Mainstay Touring, to take more control and avoid the issues he’s faced with promoters.
When Joe Budden asked if those companies viewed his move as “waging a war,” Rod said he understood why they reacted the way they did.
“That’s why when you start doing shit like this, a lawsuit…the consumer may say, ‘Oh damn, that’s a L,’ or ‘That’s a bad thing,’ but to me, I understand it,” he said. “They better sue.
“It better be a war. It should be a war. You talking about $30 and $40 and $50 million at a time that these folks taking home. So, yeah, it should be a war. It better be. It ain’t right if it ain’t one.”
“I come from war. Think about war every day, all day, on every level. Ain’t never been scared to go to war with nobody. It is what it is. Ain’t nothing I can’t stand up on,” he added. “That’s just how the shit work. But we learned that even what I come from, like my background, the hand I was dealt, like you got to go to war sometime. So even in business shit, got to go to war sometime. But I ain’t did nothing wrong.”
Rod concluded by saying those companies “don’t give a fuck about my fans.”
Earlier this month, Grizzly Touring filed a lawsuit accusing the rapper of owing more than $27 million after failing to complete his Last Lap Tour. The company said they agreed to pay Rod $40,250,000 to perform 35 shows, half of which was paid upfront. They claimed Rod only performed 26 of the 35 dates and still owed for “unearned and unrecouped advances” made to him and his Hit House Entertainment company.
Rod, however, argued that the remaining shows were either rescheduled or canceled due to “poor scheduling and routing” by Grizzly, while the company countered that production issues outside their control caused the delays.
More recently, Rod accused Grizzly of attempting to force him into “indentured servitude.”
Speaking with Billboard, the rapper said his most recent tour “had to get taken down because of the routing,” which led him to create Mainstay Touring so he could be “more hands-on” with every aspect of his live shows.
