The monumental success of Tyla’s 2023 hit single “Water,” a track that garnered a Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance and spent 29 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, has taken an unexpected turn into the legal arena. South African star Tyla (Tyla Seethal) and her team are now facing a lawsuit filed on Friday, July 25, by two collaborators, songwriters Olmo Zucca and Jackson LoMastro. The lawsuit alleges that they have been cheated out of substantial royalties through a “nefarious” scheme orchestrated by lead producer Sammy SoSo (Samuel Awuku).
The legal action targets Tyla, Sammy SoSo, and Sony Music Entertainment, which owns Tyla’s label, Epic Records. Notably, this isn't the first time these allegations have surfaced; Zucca and LoMastro had filed a similar lawsuit against the same defendants in March, but voluntarily dropped that case on Thursday, July 24, only to re-file it the very next day through a new attorney.
Zucca and LoMastro contend that during a March 2023 recording session in Los Angeles, they collaborated with SoSo and fellow producer Rayo (Rayan El-Hussein Goufar). Their efforts during this session reportedly led to the creation of "numerous audio recordings that were used on the final version of 'Water'". Despite their alleged contributions to the production, Zucca and LoMastro are currently credited solely as co-writers on the hit track, conspicuously absent from producer credits.
The core of their financial grievance lies in the distribution of royalties. The plaintiffs allege that Sammy SoSo deliberately sidelined them by contracting directly with Tyla “to take sole credit for production of the song”. Furthermore, they claim that SoSo lowballed them on publishing royalties, offering only 10% each, while he himself secured a higher rate of 15%. The legal complaint explicitly states, “Although plaintiffs tried for months to resolve the matter with Awuku, Awuku refused to cooperate and, instead, engaged in a pattern of deception designed to conceal his nefarious actions”. It is also alleged that SoSo misled Zucca and LoMastro into signing a contract that memorialized these allegedly unfair royalty rates. The lawsuit even cites a May 2024 meeting where Epic Records president Ezekiel Lewis purportedly stated that SoSo had not informed the label about any co-producers on “Water”.
Through their lawsuit, Olmo Zucca and Jackson LoMastro are now demanding producer credits on “Water,” a retroactive and forward-looking adjustment of their royalty rate to 12.5%, and an additional producer fee. The complaint underscores their claim of "injury in fact" due to the defendants' refusal to acknowledge their status as "topline producers" and their failure to pay owed royalties.
