Tyla has been sued by two collaborators on her hit 2023 song “Water,” who claim they’ve been cheated out of royalties by way of a “nefarious” scheme by a lead producer on the track.
Songwriters Olmo Zucca and Jackson LoMastro make the allegations in a Friday (July 25) lawsuit against the South African star (Tyla Seethal), British producer Sammy SoSo (Samuel Awuku) and Sony Music Entertainment, the owner of Tyla’s label Epic Records. Notably, the pair made the same allegations in a previous lawsuit against Tyla, SoSo and Sony this past March, but voluntarily dropped that case on Thursday (July 24) before re-filing on Friday, through a new attorney.
Zucca and LoMastro say that during a March 2023 recording session in Los Angeles, they worked with SoSo and fellow producer Rayo (Rayan El-Hussein Goufar) to make numerous audio recordings that were used on the final version of “Water.” The July 2023 track spent 29 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 7, and ultimately won a Grammy Award for best African music performance.
Zucca and LoMastro are credited as co-writers on “Water,” but not as producers. The pair allege that SoSo deliberately cut them out by contracting directly with Tyla “to take sole credit for production of the song,” and that he then lowballed Zucca and LoMastro with publishing royalties of only 10% each while giving himself 15%.
“Although plaintiffs tried for months to resolve the matter with Awuku, Awuku refused to cooperate and, instead, engaged in a pattern of deception designed to conceal his nefarious actions,” reads the legal complaint.
According to the lawsuit, SoSo fooled Zucca and LoMastro into signing a misleading contract that memorialized these unfair royalty rates. The complaint also cites a May 2024 meeting that Zucca had with Epic Records president Ezekiel Lewis, during which Lewis supposedly said SoSo had not informed the label about any co-producers on “Water.”
Zucca and LoMastro are now seeking, through their lawsuit,t to get producer credits on the track and change their royalty rate to 12.5%, both retroactively and going forward. They also want a producer fee.
“Because defendants have refused to recognize plaintiffs’ status as topline producers of the song, and have failed to pay plaintiffs all of the royalties they are owed from the song, plaintiffs have each suffered injury in fact,” says the complaint.
Zucca and LoMastro claim “Water” has generated more than $10 million in revenue since its release and will keep raking in hefty profits; “based on industry history, it is more than reasonable to expect the song to generate upwards of $50 million over an extended period of time,” says the lawsuit.
Reps for Tyla, SoSo and Sony did not immediately return requests for comment on the claims.