Gussie Clarke Hits Back At Sasha’s ‘White-Collar Crime’ Allegations In Publishing Deal

Veteran Dancehall and Reggae producer Gussie Clarke has rubbished allegations made by gospel artiste Sista Sasha, who accused him of underhanded business practices executed in a publishing deal she signed with him years ago as a secular Dancehall artist.

Clarke hit back, defending his character, while explaining the finer details of the 1995 contract he signed with Sasha in an interview with THE STAR.

“She signed a publishing agreement which is a songwriter’s agreement. At that point in time the deal was 50 per cent to the writer, 50 per cent to the publisher and since then to now, she has received over 20-odd statements and collected over $4.5 million. Mi have the cheque number and all a dem thing deh,” he told THE STAR.

“And even though it says we get 50 per cent as the publisher, at the end of the day we don’t get 50 per cent because if any legal costs relating to anything arises, we pay for it ourselves. If someone wants to sample the song etc, and we have to get lawyers to go over contracts, and so on, we don’t bill back any of those costs to her,” Clarke explained.

Sista Sasha had made the comments in an Instagram Live session last Friday with Mr Vegas. She suggested that there was some amount of business exploitation that took advantage of her youth and naivete in her initial 50 percent publishing deal for five years.

“I don’t know nothing about royalties, publishing. You give me a contract, one young likkle girl come in, yuh nuh seh to me, ‘Listen, yuh need fi have a lawyer…cause mi know seh yuh nuh know nothing’. Then if a man can gi yuh something fi mek yuh sign weh half a your life knowing seh di real money, di real deal a inna the publishing and dem a go gi yuh as somebody weh nav di knowledge, yuh nuh feel seh a evil dat?” she asked during the Live session.

However, Clarke challenged her to prove her unfounded allegations and even indicated that the most recent payment made out to Sista Sasha was last October when she received over $300,000.

“We affi pay her everything we agreed to when it is due to her even when the terms in the 1995 contract expired. Anything in regards to those works, we are legally bound and obligated to honour them because we still maintain administrative control over all the songs done during that period and that means that we affi pay her whenever payments are due,” he said. “If she or anyone for her can provide proof that I have gotten a dollar for her and intentionally not pay her, I will pay 10,000 times any amount that they can prove.”

Sasha went so far as to call Clarke’s actions a “white-collar crime” and claimed that the contract would thereafter undergo several amendments that favored Clarke’s pockets.

But Clarke rubbished her claims, saying that Sista Sasha has a US attorney who, for the last few years, has been “going back and forth with us and implying that our practices and principles are not fair and just”.

“She waste two years on lawyer only to be paid the same money that was promised after receiving all the paperwork etc, that I submitted,” he said. “She can choose to audit the paperwork at any time but she chose to go the dishonourable route and talk like yuh rob her.”