A former employee of R&S Records has lodged a racial discrimination claim with an employment tribunal against the electronic music label and its co-founder Renaat Vandepapeliere.
Raj Chaudhuri claims he was racially discriminated against while employed at R&S Records, unlawfully dismissed, and victimised.
R&S Records was founded in 1984 in Ghent, Belgium, by Vandepapeliere and his wife, Sabine Maes, releasing a number of dance classics by Joey Beltram, Aphex Twin, Human Resource, and Jam & Spoon. The label was revived after a quiet period in 2006 with significant success, working with artists such as James Blake.
Chaudhuri states he was employed by the company as a “freelance A&R” [artist and repertoire] between May 2019 and 29 September 2020. At that time Chaudhuri – whose business card stated he was an A&R Consultant for R&S Records – scouted, negotiated and signed new artists for the R&S label.
In the tribunal claim, Chaudhuri alleged he faced significant resistance when trying to diversify the label. He claims Vandepapeliere was unwilling to sign a number of black artists that Chaudhuri was keen to work with and was dismissive of the work of artists of colour he did manage to bring to the label.
The claim notes: “With the benefit of hindsight, I believe his hatred of that music was racially motivated.”
The claim was filed at London South Employment Tribunal on 21 January.
A statement sent by Maes, R&S and Vandepapeliere said: “Mr Renaat Vandepapeliere is certainly not racist and everyone at R&S Records embraces equality.”
The company denies the allegations and said it was considering a defamation claim against Chaudhuri for making “these spurious, untruthful and damaging allegations”.
R&S added it had not yet had an opportunity to prepare its case as the claim had not been formally served by the employment tribunal.
The claim follows an incident in September 2020 when Vandepapeliere issued a public apology after he was accused of making racially insensitive comments.
The Los Angeles musician Eddington Again posted screenshots of a series of emails on Instagram between them and Vandepapeliere in which they asked why the label didn’t have more artists of colour on its roster and had not been more vocal about the Black Lives Matter movement.
In response, Vandepapeliere referenced “a full pure breed black artist” that the label is planning to work with. When Vandepapeliere was accused of being racist, he released a public apology, Resident Adviser magazine reported, and said the term had a different resonance in Dutch.
The company said it had reported Chaudhuri to the Metropolitan police on 8 January 2021.
R&S Records said Chaudhuri was “a freelancer who became disgruntled and was fired due to reasons that would fall under gross misconduct if he had been an employee”.
The company had said he had attempted to blackmail Vandepapeliere on 29 September “when he emailed that he would ‘destroy’ him publicly unless he was paid £10,000 for potential future work that never happened”.
R&S Records said: “We have no intention of litigating this in the press and have every confidence that justice will prevail.”
Chaudhuri denied the allegations and said: “All the evidence speaks for itself and I will no longer be bullied into being silent on this issue.”
He added: “The music industry must become free of racial and gender discrimination and the fight back starts with those in the music community supporting and working towards equality.
“I want to thank all the great artists I worked with during my time at R&S Records. Ultimately, it is the artists and their music that make any record label great. This was definitely the case for R&S Records.”