Flava to be sued by German producer

One876Entertainment.com understands that A German producer, Ingo Kleinhammer, has filed a lawsuit in Europe against No Doubt Records which alleges that its chief executive officer, Kemar McGregor collected over 300,000 euros for productions and LPs that have not yet been delivered to the German company.

Kemar 'Flava' McGregor is contending that the contract he signed with Hammer Music is exploitative that robs him of his production rights, and that he has never received any royalties for his work even though his albums have sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

"The artistes dem get pay, but Hammer has breached its contract with me. I signed with them when I was 23, they have done 20 albums with me, but almost seven years later, I have seen no statement, no royalty payments. When I checked on my rights, I was told that the performance rights, writer's and mechanical rights to the songs have been paid over to Hammer," he said.

"I did nine compilation CDs with the, I did an album for Luciano, two for Sizzla, three for Turbulence, and one for Anthony B, and I haven't got any royalties," he said.

"I have checked with the major distributors that put out the first Sizzla album and that sold 150,000 units on soundscan, and Turbulence's 'Join Us' album with 'Name and Number' was album of the month in Germany. Nuff yute ah get rob. We send out our work out there and no get no royalties. When we step out and get we owna lawyer, that is when we find out they are robbers," Mr. McGregor said.

He believes that the company believes that because he is the hottest roots producer in the business now, they want to exploit him in a "bakra master thing".

"If you go on www.reggae-now.com, you can see that they want to claim all my work. They believe they own Flava, and they are the ones who breached their contract. The artistes not getting any royalty, and the artistes dem a blame me, mi send on their money from the company to do their albums but all me do is produce the albums dem," he said.

However, Mr. Kleinhammer said that substantial advances were paid for LPs from artistes such as Gentleman, Bushman and Warrior King that have not been delivered.

Mr. Kleinhammer also charges that Mr. McGregor had engaged in illegal licensing of products repeatedly and had received advances for selling and licensing the product to third parties.

"This happened with the Mama track by the artiste Gyptian plus additional tracks or a complete album involving Ras Records, VP Records and Greensleeves. The money was returned to Ras Records after they threatened to sue him, but he has not paid over the advance he got from VP Records to Hammer Musik GmbH, and the matter with Greensleeves is still pending, but Mr.McGregor did not pay the advance back, so the matter is unresolved," Kleinhammer, who is the managing director of Hammer Musik GmbH, he told Xtra News during an international phone call this week.

He said that Hammer Musik GmbH paid US$7,000 for the production of Queen Ifrica's 'Daddy' but despite promises, has not paid the money. He licensed this track illegally on a rhythm album with Greensleeves, the Triumphant Rhythm, and signed a publishing agreement with Network Music in New York.

"We had to put a stop on this by informing BMI," Mr. Kleinhammer said.

There were other problems with Turbulence's Name and Number, and other irregularities involving artistes.

"On certain product, that is, the Gentleman contracts were presented and other emails documented that there would be a release. None of them was conducted, and constant reminders to supply master records or even  samples were either ignored or promised, but not delivered," he said.

"While on certain projects like with the artiste Warrior King and Bushman, there was not even a contract with the artiste by No Doubt Productions/No Doubt Records. The artistes have already confirmed this and have done so by email. Bushman will take him to court. The money was spent on other purposes, this can only be considered as serious fraud. Consequently, there was also a violation of the existing publishing agreements and information was simply not supplied," Mr. Kleinhammer stated.

Mr. McGregor is sticking to his guns, saying that all the artistes had been paid.

"Every man get them advance, money mek, it start out good, but when the record start sell, dem no send no statement. They have only sent to me statements regarding what they have spent, what about the profits, especially since I signed 50-50 deal with them. It is because mi hot why are they doing this now. Every artiste need to have access to Soundscan, and employ lawyers to do the research, and they will see how they are being robbed," he said.

Producer Collie Bud has had a similar experience with Hammer Music.

He said that he had submitted more than 20 albums and several singles since 2000 to the company.

"After three months, they said they would they would send the royalties. I got nothing. I found out they have collected money from other publishing companies on my behalf,  and not advanced money to us, I send emails and no reply. I put out my work, license it on different albums, but he was also the publisher for the Sizzla album, so him collect. This is a cautionary tale, one company cannot be a publisher and a record company for any one person," he said.

Collie Bud produced the popular 'Poverty' single by QQ which was available as a ringtone through a European telephone company.