There is a growing dispute over the composition rights of Tiger’s song When in the wake of the news that Drake’s latest track, Blue Green Redis said to have wrongfully inserted lyrics and melody from the dancehall artist’s song from 1991.
Music producer Gussie Clarke is furious that fellow producer Cleveland “Clevie” Brown allegedly changed the division of the Tiger single. He is particularly outraged that the divisions were changed more than 30 years after the original divisions of composition rights and royalties were set in various jurisdictions’ music databases. Clarke believes there was a lack of transparency in the process.
“I never informed anyone about the release of the interpolation until it was brought to my attention by Clevie, who apparently knew about it some time ago,” Clarke said. TanzhalleMag.
Clarke objected to Brown’s actions to allegedly alter the registration of the divisions in several jurisdictions to show a one-third division between Cleveland “Clevie” Browne, Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson and Norman Washington Jackson (Tiger).
“The song was registered 30 years ago with Tiger getting 50 percent of the shares and Steely and Clevie sharing the other 50 percent. Now he says Steely and Clevie wrote some lines in ‘When’ and they are entitled to an additional share of the copyright. So last year Clevie and his people changed the registration of the song and changed the shares to 33 and one third each for Tiger, Clevie and Steely,” Gussie claimed.
Clarke described Clevie’s alleged actions as “very disappointing” given Tiger’s financial situation. “…especially knowing that Tiger is dead and hungry and now all of a sudden you want to change the distribution? That is surprising for two reasons: firstly, there has been no challenge for 30 years and secondly, this change now deprives Tiger of the opportunity to improve his personal and social situation after his accident,” Gussie fumed.
Blue Green Red was originally shared last week as part of Drake’s “100 Gigs for Your Headtop” dump of unreleased music and behind-the-scenes footage. It was then officially released on Saturday (August 10) via OVO/Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
The song has been played over 7.7 million times on Spotify and is expected to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week.
Cleveland ‘Clevie’ Browne, for his part, said that the change in distribution came about when his publisher SONY/EMI demanded that the When Song can be licensed.
“They needed the splits and when we checked the PRS database we assumed they were there as thirds per song, but they weren’t. Steely was with ASCAP and I was with PRS. We missed a lot of songs over the years because we never had a representative to do it on our behalf and we were more focused on the creative aspect,” Clevie explained.
Clevie added that in 1994, attorney Lloyd Stanbury helped streamline Steely and Clevie’s release under Studio 2000 by assigning staff to handle the granular tasks of breaking down already released songs in their vast catalog.
“A lot of Steely and Clevie’s work wasn’t properly catalogued before 1994. Often we would hear songs and say ‘rahtid, remember this’ and then we would get it registered,” Clevie explained.
When you register music with ASCAP, the shares between author and publisher must be 50% each, for a total of 100%. If you are both the author and co-publisher of your work, you will receive royalties as both. The artist’s royalty rate varies depending on individual contracts, but if an artist brings a completely finished song to a producer to help them record it, the producer is usually not entitled to ownership rights in the composition because they did not write the song.
However, in today’s music ecosystem, songwriting, recording, and mixing sessions are all part of the same workflow, requiring a change in split allocation.
“People know we’re musicians, but they deny the fact that we’re also writers. I don’t think Gussie himself ever knew that when you make music you’re also a composer and a writer. We said let’s each do a third, we could have done more than a third because we already have 50 percent that’s ours for the music,” Clevie said. TanzhalleMag.
TRIPLE SPLIT
Clevie further defended his position by explaining that other artists would recognize the wisdom of a three-part division if they worked with the incredible expertise of the dynamic duo of Steely and Clevie.
In 1993, Steely and Clevie co-produced and co-wrote three tracks from international superstar Billy Ocean’s eighth studio album. Time to move onincluding the individual PressureClevie said Billy Ocean acknowledged the producers’ contribution to the creation of the songs and decided to split them into three parts.
“Billy Ocean actually said, ‘Let’s do it one-third each.’ One-third for Billy, one-third for Clevie, one-third for Steely. As for Tiger, on ‘When,’ we could have done three-quarters between me and Steely, but we agreed on one-third. We always give a little bit of a break because we get 50 percent on the riddim and of the 50 percent we could have taken half,” he said.
Browne said he has worked with his publisher SONY/EMI since 1990 to properly register his work over the years.
“To this day, many songs – ‘When’ is one of them – are disputed in the PRS database, it has never been resolved. I don’t know if it’s from Greensleeves’ or Gussie’s point of view why it’s disputed, but the thing is, if you’re not sure, you should ask questions,” Clevie said dismissively.
Gussie, however, sticks to his opinion.
“They have tried to change it (the divisions) in other jurisdictions, but I was only called because the work (with PRS) is controversial. I was never called out of respect for Tiger or in the interest of Tiger,” said an angry Gussie.
“I have inner peace. That is the principle by which I live and die, no earthly or financial considerations motivate me. People can say what they want about me, but they can’t stand up in front of me and prove it. I can challenge anyone. If you don’t fail, you are a target,” Clarke continued.
Clarke said his publishing company has been instrumental in covering the medical costs incurred during Tiger’s recovery since his tragic accident in December 1993.
“Every week Tiger would come to us and get money that he would sign. When Tiger had an accident, we paid Tiger’s health insurance, we paid everything, and when Tiger’s then wife, Donna, collected money for the accident and she came here to return the money, we told her, ‘No, Donna, we collected his royalties,’ and gave her the check back. What he’s doing to Tiger is unnecessary,” said Gussie.
Browne said many industry insiders like Bobby Digital’s son Cali can attest to Bud Clevie’s version of the song’s composition and writing. Background vocals on the song “When” were handled by Danny Browne, Trevor “Skatta” Bonnick of Ruff Kut and Cleveland Browne.
“Cali Bud was there, other people were there who can prove that ‘Wann’ was composed that way,” Clevie said.
The problem is further compounded by the revelation of Rhiality, Tiger’s daughter, who claims that Tiger never signed with Gussie Clarke’s Dub Plate Music Publishers and that the Wanga Good deejay’s publisher is Elite Embassy Publishing.
“I’m all for the truth and the facts, I’m not badmouthing any publishers. I just want what’s ours and Steely’s legacy. I’m the only one who can do that and I owe it to him. We’ve worked long and hard and we hate it when people steal our work,” he said.
Wild Steely died on September 1, 2009, in a hospital in East Patchogue, New York. He was suffering from pneumonia after recovering from kidney complications in December 2008. Shortly before his death, he underwent surgery for a blood clot in his brain.
Before his death, the duo Steely and Clevie became a major Brilliant performance in local music after founding their own label in 1988. They landed big hits with singles by Foxy Brown, Tiger, Johnny P. and Dillinger. They are known for projects such as Gigi, street sweeperThe Fish market, outbreak And Lion attack. They have worked with international acts such as Maxi Priest, Shabba Ranks, Aswad, Sean Paul and Caron Wheeler.
In 1994, Steely and Clevie produced a new version of the 1967 song You don’t love me (No, no, no) by Dawn Penn for the album Steely and Clevie play Studio One VintageThe track was released as a single that same year and became a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK charts in the summer of 1994.
