Top selling reggaeton artist “Ivy Queen,” host of “Loud” podcast, is now at the center of the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Cleveland Constantine Browne, an individual; Anika Johnson as personal representative of the Estate of Wycliffe Johnson, deceased; and Steely & Clevie Productions Ltd. The podcast was produced in partnership with Spotify, a company partly owned by Universal Music Group.
Universal is a defendant in the lawsuit along with Warner Music, Sony Music, Drake, Justin Bieber, Daddy Yankee and several reggaeton and pop artists affiliated with some 1800 songs. Steely and Clevie et al claim that the songs infringe on their 1989 Fish Market riddim by way of the Dem Bow riddim made popular by Shabba Ranks.
Documents obtained by WMV showed that the riddim twins want to use episodes of “Loud” as evidence that over 1800 reggaeton songs copied or sampled the riddim.
The newest documents and videos submitted by lawyers of Steely and Clevie productions and their estate representatives include episodes of Loud introduced to the court as:
“Ivy Queen as part of Episode 31 of Loud, an oral history of reggaeton: ‘We are going to hear about that beat that came to define the scene you know what I’m talking about – Dem Bow – that beat honey that beat will dominate almost every song of reggaeton that you hear today’”
The 7 page document state, “Sleepy Wonder and Bobo General did a song on the beat called Pounder … his record had an instrumental version of the new beat on the B side that instrumental is the one that end up getting sampled over and over again and becoming the Dem Bow beat we all know and love- deejays in Puerto Rico started literally flying to new York going to the Jamaican record store and buying up every copy of Sleepy Wonder’s record that they could find.”
The lawyers are seeking to play these interviews as well as recordings of Magnum by Nicky Jam, No Se Da Cuenta by Ozuna, Me Dijeron by Ozuna, La Dificil by Bad Bunny, El Perdedor by Maluma, Calenton by Daddy Yankee feat. Yandel, Guaya by Wisin & Yandel, Bad Con Nicky by Bad Bunny feat. Nicky Jam, Sin Contrato by Maluma, Llegamos a la disco by Daddy Yankee feat. De La Ghetto 12) 2:05 Contigo Voy A Muerte by Karol G feat. Camilo, 2:16 Deja Tus Besos by Natti Natasha feat. Chencho Corleone, Shhh (Calla) by Maluma, Deseo by Wisin & Yandel feat. Zion & Lennox, Te Soñé de Nuevo by Ozuna, Ansiedad by Maluma, Todo Comienza en la Disco by Wisin, Daddy Yankee and Yandel and La Luz by Wisin & Yandel feat. Maluma. They believe if the court hears these songs on October 20, they will be better guided and understand their complaint in the sweeping lawsuit.
Ivy Queen was awarded Billboard’s Icon award earlier this year and in the opening episode of “Loud”, first aired in August 2021, which is no longer on Spotify but can be found on Amazon’s Audible, she indeed makes claim to being one of the people that created Reggaeton.
“From that day on, I was one of the people who known for creating a genre. People who came form nothing and struggled and made something new, something for the whole world to dance,” Ivy narrates.
“Loud,” produced in collaboration with Futuro Studios, dives deep into the evolution of reggaeton at a pivotal moment, after enduring a long period of neglect by English-speaking media.
“(Now) Artists from everywhere are fucking with our beat, but lotta of you don’t know the story and where this music comes from,” she added. Ivy Queen, is one of the few women in the reggaeton industry to achieve early commercial recognition paving the way for acts like Karol G, Becky G, Bad Gyal and others.
Latin superstars who are part of the lawsuit such as Maluma, El Chombo are all part of the Spotify original series and they gave their candid takes on the origins of the genre.
“People have the wrong impression that reggaeton was born in Puerto Rico, but it was born in Panama,” El Chombo says. El Chombo is the producer of Dame Tu Costa, with Dutty Ranks, YouTube No. 6 most viewed video.
Others such as Such DJ Negro, Panamanian singer Sech with in on the controversy surrounding the birth of reggaeton.
“We did reggae in Spanish first,” said Sech, who is one of the most popular Panamanian artists globally. “Who did it first is a sensitive topic. Especially for Panamanians,” he said. “A lotta people don’t give credit to Panamanians but it all started with them, If there was no reggae and dancehall en Español, then there wouldn’t be no reggaeton,” Sech added.
Another video submitted is that of super producer Tainy who has worked with Bad Bunny, Ozuna and Anuel AA and he admitted that reggaeton comes from dancehall but explained the differences in groove.
Steely and Clevie’s lawyers cites his words, “People call it like Dem Bow – because it came as a reference to a song called like that how many years ago (Dem Bow Shabba sample)” as evidence they expect to be brought into court and establish a clear intention to infringe but reggaeton artist and producers.
“When you listen to it you know you’re listening to a reggaeton track – that’s one of the most common percussion samples or elements that make a reggaeton track,” Tainy said.
Subelo Neo, the production team consisting of Freddy Montalvo Jr. and Jose Cruz, who produce many of Bad Bunny’s albums and has worked with Farruko, admitted on an episode of Pensado’s Place that, “Dem Bow is basically an old loop – it’s from Shabba Ranks – it’s from an old Jamaican song – so basically what we did – every producer in Puerto Rico, the roots from reggaeton like most of the loops and the drums and all drum patterns come from Jamaican music but like we basically recreated the loop we recreated it,” as an answer to how much “Dem Bow” did you put into (your music). This interview is also presented as evidence to be played in a Los Angeles Central District Court this week.
