Jamaican dancehall star Shenseea, and her label Interscope Records as well as parent company Universal Music Group Recordings have reached a settlement in the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Stephanie Sarley in a California Central District Court.
According to documents obtained by World Music Views®, the “Notice of settlement” was submitted to the California District Civil Court by Sarley’s attorney Pietz & Shahriari, LLP on June 14, 2023and states as follows:
“PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT a settlement to resolve all claims at issue in this case has been reached. Plaintiff Stephanie Sarley anticipates filing a Stipulation of Dismissal with Prejudice within 60 days of this filing. In the interim, Plaintiff respectfully requests that the Court take all dates off calendar and retain jurisdiction for the purposes of enforcing the settlement agreement.”
The settlement is in relation to the 2019 music video for Foreplay produced by Rvssian and directed by Marco ‘FrameXGod’ Ruiz, which Stephanie Sarley had claimed that Shenseea and her label ripped off portions of her provocative “fruit art” works in sections of the video.
Sarley had requested damages of US$450,000 in total for the use of three clips of her work and initially Shenseea and UMG/interscope had denied any claims of use.
Shenseea, real name Chinseea Lee signed a record deal with Rvssian’s Rich Immigrants label in 2019 which subsequently handed her over to Interscope records. Currently the Trick Or Treat deejay has unfollowed her label boss on Instagram although he is still among her 6.5 million followers.
Last October the 26 year old blamed her label for not releasing physical copies of her debut album “Alpha” in a since deleted tweet.
Since signing to Rich Immigrants/Interscope, Shenseea has experienced several hiccups in her music career including industry backlash for the direction of the salacious music video Lick, featuring Megan Thee Stallion. Her debut album received television promotions with a slew of international features but ‘Alpha’ only managed to sell 845 pure copies and 4900 total album equivalent units in its first week according to data provided to WMV by Luminate. The album went on to sell 60,000 units by December making it the second most successful album by a Jamaican artist in 2022 and the highest selling dancehall artist for the year.
Lick was also the subject of a now settled lawsuit originally filed in the Southern District of New York on March 3, 2022, according to documents obtained by World Music Views, by Anastas Hackett aka Pupa Nas-T, who produced and co-wrote the 1999 song Work with Harkness Taitt.
Shenseea released “Lick” featuring Megan Thee Stallion on January 21, 2022 with a sexually charged themed music video on YouTube. The song currently has 19 million views after a year.
Traveling Man Productions, LLC along with Hackett, were listed as the plaintiffs, and were represented by NY attorney Courtney K. Davy. They sought US$10 million in damages, plus profits accrued from Lick, and attorney costs.
The 9-page complaint named Chinsea Linda Lee (Shenseea), Interscope Records, the UK-based Atal Music Limited and their employee Alexandre Escolier as defendants. It said that Atal Music and Escolier were contracted by Shenseea’s representatives to clear the sample of Work for use in the Lick collab with Megan Thee Stallion.
Hackett withheld his consent for the use of his song because he found the terms offered by the defendants to be inadequate according to the complaint.
In commenting on the lawsuit at the time Shenseea’s co-manager Romeich Major told WMV in a text message that he was unaware of an impending legal issue and that: “Dat coulda neva happen cause a big label like dat woulda clear everything.”
Rvssian’s name or company Rich Immigrants has never been mentioned in any of the lawsuits but over the years Interscope Records has had its fair amount of copyright lawsuits. Dating back to 1997 when Trauma Records filed a $100 million suit against the company and its distributor on contentions about who owned the rights to the rock group No Doubt..
Trauma owners Rob Kahane and Paul Palmer eventually walked away from the joint venture with Interscope two years early and $3 million richer–but without the top-selling act No Doubt.
In 2002 Dr. Dre and Interscope and parent company Universal were sued by an Indian film and music company for more than $500 million over the use of an unlicensed sample on “Addictive,” the first single from Truth Hurts’ debut LP, Truthfully Speaking.”
Universal Music Group was issued a cease-and-desist letter prior to the suit, which the label conglomerate ignored according to lawyers representing Saregama India Ltd.
Their copyright manager also asked UMG to stop using the sample because the lyrics of “Addictive,” in which sexually explicit references were made, were potentially offensive to some Indians’ cultural and religious sensibilities.
A federal judge in Los Angeles eventually ruled that “Addictive” must be removed from shelves unless Bollywood composer Bappi Lahiri’s name is added to the credits. He likened the unauthorized sampling of the song by Dr. Dre and Interscope to “cultural imperialism.” The case was settled in 2003.
