Chris Brown is facing legal action, accusing him of withholding royalties for two hit songs from a songwriter.
The suit was filed against the R&B singer yesterday (Wednesday February 4) in a federal court in Manhattan, and raised by Steve Chokpelle.
In his claim, Chokpelle alleges that he was with Brown and Sean Kingston in 2020 when he was asked by the former to write lyrics for a song called ‘Monalisa’ – which appears to have been officially released in June 2021.
Chokpelle also alleges that he wrote the lyrics for another song called ‘Sensational’ in 2021, and claims that after Brown heard a demo of the song he decided to cut it himself.
In the filing, as reported by Rolling Stone, Chokpelle claims that Brown went on to record, mix and master his own version of that track, and released it on his 2023 album ‘11:11’ as a collaboration with Lojay. He adds that Brown never paid him for his contributions, despite it allegedly generating more than $1million in revenue.
‘Sensational’ reached the top of the charts on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart when it was released, and peaked at Number 71 on the Hot 100, with both Kingston and Lojay listed as co-writers.
Brown is being accused in the filing as depriving Chokpelle of proper credit, and withholding “his properly entitled compensation flowing from his role as author/owner of the lyrics”.
In the claim, Chokpelle seeks for Brown to list him as an author and copyright owner for the two tracks. He is also seeing damages from Brown and Kingston, as well as Universal Music Publishing Group and Sony Music Entertainment.
“Defendants sustained a tremendous benefit, and shall continue to receive tremendous benefit, by earnings millions in revenues, acclaim, accolades, and goodwill, from the commercial exploitation of ‘Monalisa’ and ‘Sensational,’” the lawsuit, filed by Chokpelle’s lawyer Simon J. Rosen read (via RS).
Rosen also added that his client “is entitled to a full, discrete accounting of all revenues earned” by Brown “from the commercial exploitation of the subject songs”.
NME has reached out to a representative for Chris Brown for comment.