Dua Lipa's Levitating remix lawsuit is over after talkbox artist Bosko Kante agreed to drop his copyright claims for good. A joint filing in Los Angeles ends the dispute with no trial, and each side must cover its legal bills.
Kante had accused Lipa, producer Stephen Kozmeniuk, and Warner Records of using his recorded parts in three remixes without consent. His complaint sought at least $2 million in damages and a share of remix profits he valued at over $20 million.
The tracks at issue were a version by The Blessed Madonna with Madonna and Missy Elliott, a DaBaby collaboration, and a special American Music Awards edit. Kante claimed each one used more of his audio than the main album track did.
Back at the start, Kozmeniuk had asked Kante to add talkbox sounds to Levitating. Kante, who helped start wearable talkbox maker ElectroSpit, says the pair made a verbal deal rather than signing a formal contract.
Under that alleged deal, Kante would get $1,500, a credit, and a cut of neighboring rights shared among seven players. But his main point was about reuse. He says the deal only gave permission for the first track, not any later edits.
And his complaint went further. Kante said the remixes used vocal and tune parts he had made that fans never heard in the album cut. He wanted the court to grant him full or shared rights to those three tracks and stop any more use of them.
The DaBaby cut was the big one in terms of streams. It had reached 2.145 billion Spotify plays, while the album track sat at 984 million in the figures cited. Levitating also spent 77 weeks on the Hot 100, which shows the scale of the dispute.
Lipa's legal team tried to get the main copyright claim tossed. Their argument was that Kante had not shown the exact bits of audio used in each remix. Judge Hernán D. Vera disagreed and let that part of the case carry on.
One detail stands out. The defense accepted in court that at least some of Kante's audio appeared in the remixes. Still, the judge threw out his separate bid for a full account of Warner's remix income under federal copyright law.
The final court papers give no cash terms and do not confirm a private deal. With the claims dismissed for good, a judge or jury will never rule on whether the alleged verbal pact allowed remix use.
This was not the first legal fight tied to Levitating. Reggae act Artikal Sound System had accused the song of copying Live Your Life, but Judge Sunshine S. Sykes found its case lacked a sound claim that Lipa's team had heard the track. That suit also ended for good.
Another case came from music publishers linked to L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer. They pointed to Wiggle and Giggle All Night and Don Diablo as earlier works with shared parts. Judge Katherine Polk Failla sided with Lipa, finding that those common music traits had no copyright shield.
Kante had also appeared as a defendant in both older cases, with the Brown and Linzer complaint citing his claim to a writing credit on Levitating. The latest dismissal closes his separate fight over the remixes without a ruling on who held the rights to his talkbox work.
Kante had accused Lipa, producer Stephen Kozmeniuk, and Warner Records of using his recorded parts in three remixes without consent. His complaint sought at least $2 million in damages and a share of remix profits he valued at over $20 million.
The tracks at issue were a version by The Blessed Madonna with Madonna and Missy Elliott, a DaBaby collaboration, and a special American Music Awards edit. Kante claimed each one used more of his audio than the main album track did.
Back at the start, Kozmeniuk had asked Kante to add talkbox sounds to Levitating. Kante, who helped start wearable talkbox maker ElectroSpit, says the pair made a verbal deal rather than signing a formal contract.
Under that alleged deal, Kante would get $1,500, a credit, and a cut of neighboring rights shared among seven players. But his main point was about reuse. He says the deal only gave permission for the first track, not any later edits.
And his complaint went further. Kante said the remixes used vocal and tune parts he had made that fans never heard in the album cut. He wanted the court to grant him full or shared rights to those three tracks and stop any more use of them.
The DaBaby cut was the big one in terms of streams. It had reached 2.145 billion Spotify plays, while the album track sat at 984 million in the figures cited. Levitating also spent 77 weeks on the Hot 100, which shows the scale of the dispute.
Lipa's legal team tried to get the main copyright claim tossed. Their argument was that Kante had not shown the exact bits of audio used in each remix. Judge Hernán D. Vera disagreed and let that part of the case carry on.
One detail stands out. The defense accepted in court that at least some of Kante's audio appeared in the remixes. Still, the judge threw out his separate bid for a full account of Warner's remix income under federal copyright law.
The final court papers give no cash terms and do not confirm a private deal. With the claims dismissed for good, a judge or jury will never rule on whether the alleged verbal pact allowed remix use.
This was not the first legal fight tied to Levitating. Reggae act Artikal Sound System had accused the song of copying Live Your Life, but Judge Sunshine S. Sykes found its case lacked a sound claim that Lipa's team had heard the track. That suit also ended for good.
Another case came from music publishers linked to L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer. They pointed to Wiggle and Giggle All Night and Don Diablo as earlier works with shared parts. Judge Katherine Polk Failla sided with Lipa, finding that those common music traits had no copyright shield.
Kante had also appeared as a defendant in both older cases, with the Brown and Linzer complaint citing his claim to a writing credit on Levitating. The latest dismissal closes his separate fight over the remixes without a ruling on who held the rights to his talkbox work.
