Aug. 1 2023, Published 2:03 p.m. ET
Dua Lipa has been dragged to court by an angry music producer who claimed he’s owed millions for his work on her hit song Levitating, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, a producer named Bosko Kante has filed a lawsuit against Dua, Stephen Kozmeniuk aka Koz, and Warner Music Group.
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The suit accused the defendants of copyright infringement and breach of contract.
In the lawsuit, Kante described himself as a “well-known musical producer, a mechanical engineer, and one of the world’s top talk box artists.”
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Kante said he is also the founder of the company, ElectroSpit, which designs and manufactures the mobile talk box.
“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 vocalizing the instrument’s output into a microphone,” the suit explained.
Dua Lipa seen inn”levitating’ music video.
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The device he created 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 synthesizer, guitar, or any other electronic source.”
Kante said he was approached by music producer Koz, one of the producers of Dua’s track Levitating, in 2019.
The suit said Koz asked if Kante could create and perform a talk box performance using his device to be used for Levitating.
Kante said he “did in fact compose, create, and record his performance on the ElectroSpit Talk Box, which included, among other things, original melodies and lyrics.”
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However, he said, “following multiple attempts to come to a license agreement with Defendants over the use Plaintiff’s performance in “Levitating,” and Plaintiff’s credit and compensation, no written agreement, including any sort of “work for hire” was ever executed.”
Kante said during the conversations he made it clear his sample, if a deal was reached, could only be used for Levitating and not any reuse by Dua. In addition, he said they promised that no other uses of his work would be allowed nor would Dua own a portion of his track.
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The suit said Kante was to be paid $1,500 plus a share of the royalties.
Kante admitted that he did orally agree to license his work for Levitating but no contract was in place.
Levitating was released in March 2020 on Dua’s album Future Nostalgia. However, he claimed his composition was used on a remix with Madonna and another remix with DaBaby.
Kante said he never authorized his work being used on the remixed. In addition, he claimed the remixes were more successful than the original — which reduced his royalties for the work.
“Defendants did not seek or receive any authorization or permission to use the composition or sound recording of Plaintiff’s Work from Plaintiff,” the suit said.
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Kante said he “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.”
The lawsuit demands $2 million in damages plus all profits Dua and the defendants have made from Levitating, which he believes will be in excess of $20 million.