This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Labels & Publishers Legal
Dua Lipa sued over Levitating again, this time in relation to the remixes
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 2 August 2023
Dua Lipa has been sued yet again over her hit ‘Levitating’. But at least this time she’s not accused of ripping off an earlier song. Instead, producer Bosko Kante – “one of the world’s top talk box artists” we are told – claims that a contribution he made to the track was used in three remixes without his permission.
In a lawsuit filed with the courts in California, Kante makes allegations of copyright infringement and breach of contract against Lipa, her label Warner Music, and ‘Levitating’ co-producer Stephen Kozmeniuk, who is the person Kante seemingly had direct dealings with.
Just so the court is up to speed on these things, Kante’s lawsuit explains that “a talk box allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the sounds of the instrument, and to control the modification of the instrument’s sounds by changing the shape of the mouth, and vocalising the instrument’s output into a microphone”.
Kante’s legal filing doesn’t do this, but I think you’re usually meant to mention Peter Frampton whenever you write about talk boxes. Him having been something of a prolific talk box user back in the day.
More specifically, Kante makes use of the ElectroSpit Talk Box, his own version of the effects device which, the lawsuit goes on, “is a neck-worn electronic system that is much easier to use and carry than the original talk boxes, as the device sends sound into the mouth by way of electromagnetic transducers placed against the throat, allowing the user to shape the sounds of a synthesiser, guitar, or any other electronic source”.
That’s all well and good, but where does Lipa come into all this? Well, the lawsuit states: “In or about 2019, plaintiff was approached by music producer, Stephen Kozmeniuk … about creating and performing a talk box performance, using the ElectroSpit Talk Box, to be licensed in connection with ‘Levitating'”.
“Plaintiff did in fact compose, create and record his performance on the ElectroSpit Talk Box”, it then says, “which included, among other things, original melodies and lyrics”. This performance was sent to Kozmeniuk to be integrated into Lipa’s record.
However, no formal contract was ever agreed between Kante and Kozmeniuk. But, he insists, there was an oral agreement that “plaintiff’s performance could be used by defendants in the original recording of the track only, and that there would be no sampling or reuse of plaintiff’s performance by defendants”.
And yet, he claims, following the release of ‘Levitating’, a series of remixes were created that also used Kante’s performance. That included the Blessed Madonna remix, the version of the track featuring DaBaby, and a remix created specifically for the American Music Awards in November 2022.
“All three remixes sampled and incorporated a greater amount of plaintiff’s work than that used in the original version, including, but not limited to, additional lyrics and melody that were created by plaintiff which do not appear in the original version. Moreover, plaintiff’s work is featured more prominently throughout the … remixes”.
“Defendants did not seek or receive any authorisation or permission to use the composition or sound recording of plaintiff’s work from plaintiff”, for those remixes, the lawsuit concludes.
And “plaintiff made numerous attempts to resolve this matter short of litigation, but such efforts were unsuccessful, due to defendants’ unwillingness to cooperate or accept responsibility for this blatant infringement of plaintiff’s copyrights”. As a result, Kante would now like some lovely damages.
Lipa was previously sued, twice, over allegations ‘Levitating’ ripped off earlier songs. One of those lawsuits, filed by Florida-based band Artikal Sound System, was dismissed in June. The other was filed by songwriters L Russell Brown and Sandy Linze who accuse Lipa of infringing not one but two songs they wrote in 1979 and 1980.
