1990s Jamaican dancehall star Shabba Ranks (born Rexton Gordon) has filed a lawsuit in the United States seeking to reclaim his publishing rights, including compositions that became hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and the 1990 track “Dem Bow.” The action, filed Friday (Sept. 11), targets the publishing arm of reggae label Greensleeves Records.
Catalog at issue#
The lawsuit seeks to reclaim compositions including:
- “Slow and Sexy”
- “Housecall”
- “Mr. Loverman”
- “Let’s Get It On”
It also covers “Dem Bow,” the namesake for reggaetón’s dembow rhythm, which is at the center of a long-running copyright infringement lawsuit involving reggaetón.
Termination dispute#
The case centers on copyright termination, a provision of U.S. copyright law that allows authors to reclaim intellectual property decades after transferring it. Shabba first notified Greensleeves in 2023 that he intended to exercise this right, but the publisher declined.
Greensleeves has argued that the 1989 publishing deal classified the compositions as “works made for hire,” which are excluded from the termination statute. Shabba is contesting the validity of that work-for-hire provision and is asking a judge to declare his termination effective.
“The compositions are not and could not have been works made for hire under the U.S. Copyright Act, regardless of the language of the assignment,” wrote Shabba’s attorneys at Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt. “Gordon was never at any time an employee of [Greensleeves], and musical compositions are not recognized in the U.S. Copyright Act as a type of work that can be deemed a work made for hire simply by agreement between the hiring party and a non-employee author.”
Representatives for Shabba and Greensleeves did not immediately return requests for comment on the lawsuit Friday.
Wider industry cases#
In other copyright termination cases, Salt-N-Pepa is in a dispute with Universal Music Group (UMG) over the provision. The three major labels are also seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of a ruling that extended the termination right overseas.
