2 weeks ago
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Dancehall star Cutty Ranks has retained a new female lawyer in his ongoing battle against Panamanian artiste El Chombo and Juston Records for unpaid compensation and recognition on the viral monster hit, Dame tu Cosita, to secure his rightful earnings.
Cutty Ranks is contending that his original 1997 contribution from his monster 1991 hit song, The Stopper, was used without proper credit.
“I am still battling them because all now I haven’t been properly compensated, that’s why I have retained a new lawyer, so let’s see what she can do,” the artiste whose real name is Philip Thomas, said.
Cutty Ranks said that this dispute merely highlights broader issues of reggaeton repurposing dancehall tracks. The Dame tu Cosita, a flirtatious Spanish expression which translates as “give me your little thing”, became a global phenomenon via a viral dance challenge featuring an animated green alien. It racked up 5.3 billion views on YouTube, making it the site’s 13th most-viewed video.
The track was released as a single in 2018, debuting at No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually reaching a peak of No. 36. Ranks said that he still has not been “properly compensated”. However, ‘The Bomber’ has always had a great relationship with the Latin American market and the reggaeton industry. He feels great that Dame Tu Cosita, featuring El Chombo and the Dancing Green Alien, has racked up billions of views on YouTube, but that elation is bitter-sweet.
“The Latin America market has embraced me ... and if you check Spotify, Apple Music, the song has billions on other platforms, but I still have not got the credit I deserve or the compensation,” he said.
Dame tu Cosita was originally recorded in 1997 by Panamanian artiste El Chombo and Cutty Ranks. The single was extended and released as a single in 2018. Then a remix with major stars like Pitbull and Karol G was released on August 29, 2018.
The success of the song was 20 years in the making.
“I met Rodney Clarke, who goes by the name El Chombo, in the ‘90s in Panama, and I wrote a song originally called El Cosita in English and then he translated it into Spanish. It was my first Spanish song,” he said.
CONTACT LOST
Cutty Ranks shared that he lost contact with Clarke, but a song called Cosita Mix was included in the 1998 album Cuentos de la Cripta Vol. 2 ( Tales from the Crypt Vol. 2).
Cutty Ranks, however, went on to do other Spanish songs over the years and carved out a little space for himself in the then emerging reggaeton genre. In a May 2018 interview with Billboard, just after the song entered the Hot 100 chart at No. 81 with 10.4 million US streams, El Chombo made no mention of Cutty Ranks’ contribution to the song.
Cutty Ranks is still miffed that he was excluded from the video of a remix of the song featuring Pitbull and Karol G. He is a bit upset at how reggaeton artistes continue to repurpose Jamaican dancehall without giving credit. That is why he actively supports the major copyright infringement case filed by Steely & Clevie Productions against numerous prominent Latin American reggaeton artistes and labels.
The core argument of the lawsuit is the claim that a vast number of reggaeton songs have illegally copied elements of Steely & Clevie’s 1989 dancehall track, the Fish Market riddim (also known as the Dem Bow rhythm). This rhythm is considered foundational to the entire reggaeton genre.
He doesn’t believe that the lawsuit will damage the creative synergy between dancehall and reggaeton artistes and he still has major love for the reggaeton community in Spanish-speaking communities across Latin and South America .
“Once yu is a tief, yu is a tief no matter where yu come from. What tief have in common? Dem tief things. People have tendency to claim ownership of other people’s work and IP and tings when dem know is not fi dem creation. My comment is directed to those who know what they have done, so when dem hear this, if dem say nothing, then we will know who is offended,” Cutty Ranks railed.
Cutty Ranks will be releasing his latest album, Black List, on February 27 at Rebel T Headquarters.
English (US) ·