Cutty Ranks Files US$3 Million Lawsuit Over Unpaid Royalties From El Chombo’s ‘Dame Tu Cosita’

Dancehall veteran Cutty Ranks has filed a US$3 million lawsuit in the United States, alleging that he was never properly paid for his contributions to El Chombo’s 2018 global hit Dame Tu Cosita.

The Limb By Limb deejay, 61, is suing Ultra Music Publishing Europe AG, according to the complaint obtained by DancehallMag. Ultra Music Publishing rebranded as Payday Publishing last year after losing a trademark dispute with Sony, the parent company of Ultra Records.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, March 25. Cutty Ranks, whose real name is Philip Thomas, is being represented by Georgia attorney Catherine Gibson.

Dame Tu Cosita, which translates as “give me your little thing”, was first written and recorded by El Chombo and Cutty Ranks in 1997. It surged back into the spotlight in 2018 after a viral video featuring a dancing green alien took off online. Later that year, a remix featuring Pitbull and Karol G added more fuel.

In the lawsuit, Cutty states that the track reached No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018, sold thousands of downloads in the first week of re-release, and has since racked up more than 5 billion views on YouTube. It was during this time that he signed a co-publishing agreement and an administration agreement with Payday Publishing.

He says the co-publishing deal entitled him to “seventy-five percent (75%) of all net sums” collected from mechanical and other licenses tied to the Dame Tu Cosita compositions. The suit also says he was owed 65 percent of net sums from cover recordings and synchronization licenses, 50 percent of the publisher’s share of public performance income, and 75 percent of amounts not otherwise covered by the agreement.

The complaint acknowledges that Cutty received a US$75,000 advance, but alleges that he has not been paid anything else under the co-publishing agreement. It further claims that Payday was obligated to provide royalty accountings but “has failed to do so.”

The administration agreement granted Payday exclusive rights to compositions owned or controlled by Cutty from January 1, 2019. Under that arrangement, the company was required to remit 85 percent of net sums from several revenue streams, with lower percentages applying in some cover-use cases.

Ranks says he sent Payday a notice of default and requested an audit in April last year, demanding the royalties he says were owed to him under the agreements. According to the suit, he has still received neither payment nor audit documentation.

He is seeking no less than US$3 million in damages for breach of contract, along with a court-ordered accounting and attorneys’ fees.

Payday has not yet responded to the filing. El Chombo is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Dame Tu Cosita is also among the roughly 1,800 reggaeton works named in the long-running Steely & Clevie copyright case, which alleges that the songs unlawfully copied elements of the Jamaican duo’s Fish Market riddim.

El Chombo and Ultra Music Publishing were named among the defendants in this lawsuit; Cutty Ranks was not.