Scott

In 2009, JoJo asked a court to free her from her label, Blackground, and pay her $500,000. When the label finally let her go in 2013, she got nothing. In the video below, she tells the story herself. "Blackground owned my voice and name and likeness." She signed with Blackground at 12. The label bought her mom a car and got them an apartment. "They felt like family to us." Then it moved them to New Jersey, where, she says, "the child labor laws are easier to get around." At 13, she had a No. 1 hit. Then the label lost its distribution and stopped releasing her music. At 18, she says, it sent her to a nutritionist: 500 calories a day and appetite-killing injections. "Maybe then they'll put out an album." Her lawyers then found a New York law. "You can't keep a minor in a personal service contract for more than seven years." She sued in July 2013. While the case went on, "I wasn't allowed to make money from putting out music." Blackground settled in December 2013. "I didn't get any money. I didn't get any damages." A month later she signed with Atlantic. She told Time she would spend years paying off her lawyers. Her first two albums disappeared from streaming. "It made me feel like my story is being erased." In 2018, she re-recorded both with her own money. In 2021, Blackground put the originals back online. On October 24 this year, she announced she now owns them. Do you think labels that sign kids are protecting their investment, or keeping them trapped?