Diamond selling Hip Hop superstar Cardi B dropped by The Breakfast Club this morning to promote her new song ‘Bongos’ with Megan The Stallion. At the beggining of the interview the ‘Bodak Yellow’ rapper revealed that she got the inspiration for “Bongos” from the latin music genre “Dem Bow.”
“It’s fun but it reminds me of Dem Bow” she said. “Its funk but it’s a Dominican style of music.”
The former Love & Hip Hop cast member explained to host DJ Envy that the sound of the new US iTunes No. 1 song originated in the Dominican Republic and Uptown (The Bronx, New York), but ‘Dem Bow,’ the genre got its name from a song by Shabba Ranks of the same name. That song and its original riddim “Fish Market” produced by Steely and Clevie is at the heart of a sweeping copyright lawsuit
It is not clear whether Cardi is aware of the ongoing lawsuit which is set to go for trial in California September 22 but she told SiriusXM that she had the beat for a while before completing the song. “I had the beat for a minute…but it always sounded incomplete, the hook sounded incomplete, so I started putting verses on it where Megan is at, it just sounded to me like a ling ass song.”
The copyright infringement case involves the dancehall pioneers producers Steely and Clevie, major record companies like UMG and Warner, as well as several artists and their associated publishing companies.
In a recent development, the renowned riddim-making duo submitted revised copyright documents for the 1990s dancehall hit track “Dem Bow” by Shabba Ranks to a Los Angeles Court last Friday.
These documents reveal that April 13, 1990, marked the completion date for the song “Dem Bow,” which is jointly owned by Cleveland Constantine Browne (Clevie), Wycliffe Johnson (Steely), and Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon (Shabba Ranks). Notably, this is the first time Shabba has been brought into the legal proceedings, although he has not yet been named as a plaintiff. Shabba’s involvement in the creation of the “Dem Bow” song is characterized as a co-authorship and not as a “work for hire” arrangement.
According to the court documents obtained by WMV, the delayed submission of the corrected copyright registration was attributed to the fact that “the corrected registration was received today (Friday) from the U.S. Copyright Office, so Plaintiffs could not have submitted it any earlier, and Defendants are not prejudiced by the timing of the submission.
The ‘Fish Market riddim’ saw subsequent adaptations, including a Spanish-language rendition of ‘Dem Bow’ called “Ellos Benia” and an instrumental version known as the Pounder riddim. Steely & Clevie contend that the modified Pounder riddim closely resembled, if not mirrored, their initial composition and that it has been extensively utilized in Reggaetón music over the ensuing years.
Bongos is the follow up track to Cardi B and Meghan the Stallion’s Billboard No. 1 track WAP which was certified 8x Platinum on Friday by the Recording industry Association Of America.
The song also bears striking similarities with Jamaican social media sensation Lincoln 3dots “Bang,” released in 2021.
