Producers Face Off Over Royalty Splits For Tiger’s ‘When’ In Wake Of Drake Interpolation

There is a mushrooming dispute over the compositional rights of Tiger’s song When in the wake of news that Drake’s latest track, Blue Green Red, allegedly interpolates lyrics and melody from the Dancehall artist’s 1991 song without permission.

Music producer Gussie Clarke is hopping mad that fellow music producer Cleveland ‘Clevie’ Brown has allegedly changed the splits on the Tiger single. He is particularly upset that the splits were changed over 30 years after the original splits on compositional rights and royalties had been established in the music databases of different jurisdictions. Clarke believes that there has been a lack of transparency in the process.

“There was never any communication with me about the clearance of the interpolation until it was brought to my attention by Clevie who seemed to have known about it some time ago,” Clarke told DancehallMag. 

Clarke took issue with Brown’s moves, which allegedly changed the registration of the splits in several jurisdictions to present a one-third split between Cleveland ‘Clevie’ Browne, Wycliffe ‘Steely’ Johnson, and Norman Washington Jackson (Tiger). 

“The song was registered 30 years ago, with Tiger receiving 50 per cent of the splits and Steely and Clevie sharing the other 50 per cent. Now he’s saying that Steely and Clevie wrote some lines in ‘When’ and they are entitled to additional copyright share. So last year, Clevie and his people changed the registration of the song, changing the splits to 33 and one-third each for Tiger, for Clevie, and for Steely,” Gussie claimed.

Clarke labeled Clevie’s alleged actions as “very disappointing” given Tiger’s financial situation. “…especially knowing that Tiger ah dead fi hungry and now, all of a sudden, you want to change the splits? This is surprising for two reasons, one, there was a lack of a challenge for 30 years and number two, this change is now denying Tiger the opportunity to uplift and improve his personal and social situation given his accident,” Gussie railed.

Blue Green Red was initially shared last week as part of Drake’s “100 Gigs for Your Headtop” dump of unreleased music and behind-the-scenes content. It was then officially released on Saturday (August 10) via OVO/Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

The song has racked up over 7.7 million plays on Spotify and is expected to debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week.

For his part, Cleveland ‘Clevie’ Browne said that the change in the splits came about when his publishers SONY/EMI requested that the When song be licensed. 

“They needed the splits and when we checked the PRS database, we assumed it was there as one third each, and it wasn’t there. Steely was with ASCAP and I was with PRS. We missed a lot of songs over the years because we never had a representative to do it for us on our behalf, and we were focused more on the creative aspect,” Clevie explained.   

Clevie added that attorney-at-law Lloyd Stanbury had assisted in streamlining the publishing of Steely and Clevie under Studio 2000 in 1994, assigning staff members to deal with the minutiae of assigning splits for already released songs in their massive catalog.

“A lot of Steely and Clevie work before 1994 was not properly catalogued, we’d often hear songs and say ‘rahtid, remember that’ and then we’d move to get it registered,” Clevie explained. 

When registering music with ASCAP, the writer splits and publisher splits must each add up to 50% for a total of 100%. If you are both the writer and co-publisher of your work, you will receive royalties as both. The artist royalty rate fluctuates based on the individual deals in play, but if an artist brings a fully finished song to a producer to help record it, typically the producer would not be entitled to any composition ownership because he didn’t write the song. 

However, in today’s music ecosystem, songwriting, recording, and mixing sessions are all part of the same workflow, which necessitates a change in how splits are assigned.

“People know that we are musicians, but they negate the fact that we are also authors. I think Gussie himself never knew that when you make music, you are also a composer and an author. We said let’s do it one third each, we could have gone more than one third because we already have 50 per cent which is ours for the music,” Clevie told DancehallMag. 

THREE WAY SPLIT

Clevie further defended his position, stating that other artists recognize the validity of a three-way split when working with the incredible expertise of Steely and Clevie, the dynamic duo.

In 1993, Steely and Clevie produced and co-wrote three tracks from international superstar Billy Ocean’s eighth studio album Time to Move On, including the single Pressure. Clevie said Billy Ocean recognised the input of the producers in making the songs possible and opted for a three-way split. 

“Billy Ocean actually said ‘let’s do it one third each’. One third for Billy, one third for Clevie, one third for Steely. So as it relates to Tiger, we could have gone three quarters in ‘When’ between me and Steely, but we went one third. We always bend a little because we get 50 per cent on the riddim, and out of the 50 per cent, we could have taken half,” he said. 

Browne said that he has worked with his publishers, SONY/EMI since 1990 to properly register his work over the years.  

“To date, a lot the songs  – ‘When’ is one — in the PRS database is under dispute, it was never sorted out, I don’t know if is from Greensleeves standpoint or Gussie why it is under dispute, but the thing is, ask questions if you’re not sure,” Clevie said, dismissively. 

However, Gussie is sticking to his guns.

“They went to change it (the splits) in other jurisdictions, but I was only called because the work is in dispute (with PRS), I was never called as a matter of respect for Tiger, or in the interest of Tiger,” an upset Gussie said.

“I have peace of mind. Is principle mi live off and dead from, no earthly or monetary considerations motivate me. People can say anything dem want about me, but dem cannot stand up in front of me and prove it. i can challenge anybody. When yu don’t fail, yu is a target,” Clarke continued. 

Clarke said that since Tiger’s tragic December 1993 accident, his publishing company had been instrumental in helping to defray the medical expenses incurred as he sought to recover. 

“Each week, Tiger would come to us, and he was given money, he signed for it. When Tiger crash, ah we ah pay all of Tiger health bull, we pay everything and when Tiger’s woman at the time, Donna, collect money off the accident, and she came here to return the money, we told her ‘no Donna, we have collected from his royalties’ and give her back the cheque. What he is doing to Tiger is unnecessary,” Gussie said. 

Browne said that many industry insiders such as Bobby Digital’s son, Cali Bud, can substantiate Clevie’s version of how the song was composed and written. The backing vocals of the ‘When’ song were executed by Danny Browne, Trevor ‘Skatta’ Bonnick from Ruff Kut and Cleveland Browne. 

“Cali Bud was there, other people were there who can prove this is how When was composed,” Clevie said. 

The problem is further compounded by the revelation by Rhiality, Tiger’s daughter, who claims that Tiger never signed with Gussie Clarke’s Dub Plate Music Publishers and that the Wanga Gut deejay’s publishers are Elite Embassy Publishing. 

“I am all for the truth and facts, mi not running down nuh publishing. I just want what is ours, and for Steely’s estate as well. I am the only one who can do it, and I owe it to him. We have worked long and hard and we hate to see people stealing our work,” he said.  

The rambunctious Steely died on September 1, 2009 a hospital in East Patchogue, New York. He had been suffering from pneumonia after having recovered from kidney complications in December 2008. He had surgery for a blood clot in the brain shortly before he died.

Before his death, the duo Steely and Clevie became a major tour de force in local music, after forming their own label in 1988. They scored major hits with singles from Foxy Brown, Tiger, Johnny P., and Dillinger. They are known for projects like Gigi, Street Sweeper, the Fish Market, Busting Out and Lion Attack. They have worked with international acts such as Maxi Priest, Shabba Ranks, Aswad, Sean Paul, and Caron Wheeler. 

In 1994, Steely and Clevie produced a new version of the 1967 track You Don’t Love Me (No No No) by Dawn Penn for the album Steely and Clevie Play Studio One Vintage. The track was released as a single that same year and became a hit on Billboard Hot 100 and British charts in the summer of 1994.