Max Romeo’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit against UMG hailed

“A little man from rural St Ann fighting the biggest recording label in the world in the Supreme Court of the United States of America.”

That is how 78-year-old Chase the Devil singer, Max Romeo, described his £12.3 million/US$15m lawsuit against music giants Universal Music Group (UMG) Recordings and Polygram Publishing, Inc.

The legal action against the label stems, according to court documents, from unpaid royalties spanning more than four decades, and Romeo, who told The Gleaner in an interview in January that 2023 would be his year of retirement, shared in a Facebook post last week that he has has already explored all other avenues in an effort to get what is owed to him.

“I have exhausted every resource available to me to get this matter rectified. I had to sit on the side as my most eminent piece of work was exploited without proper compensation. I have seen and heard my music and voice being used in numerous commercial ventures and have only reaped from the opportunity to perform these songs for my fans live in concert,” the reggae troubadour, who has graced stages in far flung-parts of the world stated.

Max Romeo has had his music in the British film Yardie; his classic, Chase The Devil, was sampled by US rappers Jay Z and Kanye West, and his has been used in popular gaming series Grand Theft Auto. He has stated that in total he is suing for recompense for 19 songs.

The actual suit states: “The album War Ina Babylon contained nine Romeo Recordings, including War Ina Babylon and Chase The Devil. Island Records and Island Music released a second album, Reconstruction, in 1977. The album Reconstruction contained ten Romeo Recordings. In or about 2003, for example, the artiste and producer Jay-Z released The Black Album, which included the song Lucifer. Lucifer extensively sampled from Romeo’s recording of Chase The Devil, including Romeo singing “Lucifer, Son of the Morning, I’m gonna chase you out of Earth.” Lucifer was a commercial success . The Black Album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard Top 100 chart and is considered one of Jay-Z’s finest albums. According to published reports, as of July 2013, The Black Album had sold 3,516,000 copies in the US alone. 3. The Prodigy (a UK based electronic dance group who have sold more than 25 million records worldwide and achieved 1.5 billion streams on Spotify alone), sampled plaintiff’s recording of Chase The Devil on their international smash hit, Out Of Space.

It continues, “UMG and its predecessors have failed to account to Romeo in respect of sales related to Out of Space, nor have they paid any royalties to Romeo in accordance with his contractual entitlement. 44. Additionally, Romeo’s recording and composition of Chase The Devil was licensed for the hugely successful 2011 feature film Paul featuring Seth Rogen which grossed nearly $100 million worldwide. 45. Additionally, Romeo’s recording and composition of Chase The Devil was licensed for use in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas [GTASA], considered by many reviewers to be one of the greatest video games ever made and one of the highest selling video games of all time. Defendant UMG accounted to Romeo for his song Chase The Devil to the extent that he received 25% of a $5,000 “synchronization fee” for use of the song. Grand Theft Auto was the number one brand in gaming and GTASA became the number one best-selling game in history upon its release. The synchronization fee is well below commercial expectations and industry standards for a release of this magnitude.”

Romeo has sought to absolve Perry of all blame and in the Facebook post, in which he stated clearly that he would not be speaking about the matter publicly again, he shared his admiration for the late, eccentric producer. He hailed Perry as “a genius” and stressed that he was “eternally grateful for the work he has put into making this project what it was - we worked together to create a genre-defining body of work that has transcended generations. I have the utmost respect for him, hence I must clarify that he had absolutely nothing to do with this lawsuit.”

Romeo has received thousands of favourable comments on social media since the suit was made public. He is being hailed as the voice of the voiceless artistes who have found themselves in similar predicaments throughout the decades. As he himself stated, “Many Jamaican singers and songwriters have faced the same injustice I have from the people who promised to take our music across barriers, and as soon as the music gets there, we are pushed to the side and disregarded. At 78 years old, I cannot enter this new phase of my life being docile and silent, I have to speak up, I have to fight for what is rightfully mine with whatever strength left in me. I have to do this for the new generation to come, to raise awareness as I am often addressed as a ‘legend’ or a ‘veteran’ a title I take with great pride. This matter is now in the hands of the court and I will not be commenting on it any further.”

Veteran tour and artiste manager, Copeland Forbes, told The Sunday Gleaner that he is “watching this one closely”. The Reggae My Life Is author shared that the issue of unpaid royalties is a major one in the reggae music industry.

“Unpaid royalties is a big problem in reggae music because a lot of artistes and producers and musicians were not educated on the business of the music. Things are a little better now, but artistes still have a lot more to learn. Back in those days there were different types of arrangements ... some very loose ... with the record producer and artistes and record companies ... and some of them still exist today. I am waiting to see how this will turn out,” Forbes said.

Music marketer, Sean ‘Contractor’ Edwards was quite pragmatic in his assessment.

“At age 78, having put in a great body of work and about to retire from touring, Max Romeo seems to be doing some analysis of his musical portfolio and realised that he is owed millions in unpaid royalty and publishing,” Edwards stated.

He added, “Max Romeo is within his rights and hopefully has done due diligence in regards to the copyright of those songs as a performer and songwriter. This should be a lesson to all reggae artistes to ensure that contracts and copyrights are established and they sign off on their ownership and publishing rights with respect to their music, image and brand.”

UMG, together with its parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, form the largest music company in the world.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com↔