Shenseea’s ‘Lick’ Lawsuit: Interscope Agreed On $5,000 To Clear Song But No Contract Was Allegedly Signed

New court records filed on Friday (July 29) reveal that Anastas ‘Pupa Nas-T’ Hackett and Interscope Records had initially agreed on a $5,000 USD advance to clear a sample used in Shenseea‘s Lick collab with Megan Thee Stallion.  However, according to the New York-based producer, he was not paid the advance and the song was released without him signing a contract.

The records, which include several email correspondences, were filed in support of Nas-T’s motion for default judgment against the Jamaican starlet and her label, and they shed light on the so-called “administrative issue” that resulted in the US$10 million copyright lawsuit.

Released on January 21, 2022, Lick sampled a 2002 remix of Denise ‘Sacey Wow’ Belfon’s Work by the production duo Masters At Work (‘Little’ Louie Vega and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez), who had licensed the original 1999 song from Pupa Nas-T.  The license expired ten years ago, and Nas-T, who produced and co-wrote the song with Harkness Tiatt, owns both the original master and the Masters At Work remix, as detailed by Beatport.

According to the court records obtained by DancehallMag, Interscope had contracted DMG Clearances, Inc to do the leg work of clearing the sample.  In a September 13, 2021 email to DMG, Pupa Nas-T—through his music publisher ATAL Music and their rep Alexandre Escolier—initially agreed that he would approve the sample if he was paid a $5,000 USD advance, 3% royalty on wholesale sales (PPD), and 15% royalty on Shenseea’s net streaming on the song.

Escolier had also asked DMG whether Interscope would consider Nas-T’s request for an appearance in the official music video, as it was he who chanted “work” in the backing vocals of the original song and remix.

In the meantime, on September 21, 2021, DMG indicated that Interscope had agreed to pay the $5,000 advance, and the specified royalties when they became due.

However, DMG only sent the final written agreement to Escolier for Nas-T’s signature on February 2, 2022, 12 days after Lick was already released on YouTube and all streaming platforms.

By then, Pupa Nas-T had ‘fired’ Escolier from representing his music catalog and his production company after he learned of the song’s release from “colleagues who…had reached out to congratulate” him.

“I have engaged my manager [Steven Thompson] and legal counsel [Courtney K. Davy] to resolve the clearance of my music.  You are no longer to have any communications with the record label on my behalf,” Nas-T wrote in a February 3, 2022 email to Escolier. “I will be handling everything directly from this point.”

According to Nas-T’s lawyer, the agreement was never signed and executed, and Lick was released without his consent and without the $5,000 advance being paid to him.

In March, when DancehallMag contacted Nas-T about the lawsuit, he briefly described it as an “administrative issue” with the named Defendants Interscope Records, Chinsea ‘Shenseea’ Lee, ATAL Music Limited, and Alexandre Escolier.

On June 14, New York judge Mary Kay Vyskocil dismissed the lawsuit against ATAL and Escolier, after Nas-T failed to file proof of service of a summons on them.  He did, however, provide proof of service on Shenseea and Interscope on June 7.  They were each served on April 22, 2022, at a New York address.  Shenseea and Interscope were required to respond to the complaint by May 13, 2022, and they did not seek an extension to that deadline, the records show.

The lawsuit had demanded, among other things, that Hackett be awarded copyright infringement damages in the amount of $150,000; wilful infringement damages in excess of $10,000,000; and actual damages and profits from 43 sources including sales, ringtones, streaming, endorsements, and touring.

In the motion for default judgment filed on Friday, Nas-T’s lawyer noted that, because of Shenseea and Interscope’s failure to appear, the Court would be unable to determine the actual damages arising from Shenseea’s alleged unjust enrichment from Lick.  

“Although the Defendants’ failure to appear prevents the Plaintiff and the Court from discovering the Defendants’ profits and expenses, the Defendants have received over 13 million streams on YouTube and has performed and generated revenue from the performance of the infringed song,” the motion for default judgment read.

It continued: “While the Plaintiff is unable to provide actual scope of the Defendants’ revenue from the infringed song, it is clear based on the popularity of the Defendant, Shenseea, and evidence of her performing the infringed song, which defendant performed on MTV [PUSH] as seen here:”

“According to the website celebritytalent.net, defendant, Shenseea earn[s] between $25,000 to $39,999 per event. As it stands at the drafting of this motion, the infringed song is one of the defendant’s most successful songs, and therefore it can be implied is responsible for [a] significant portion of her booking rate,” the motion added.

Lick, which appears on Shenseea’s debut album Alpha, is her highest-charting song in the United States, as a lead artist. It peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.