Jason Derulo Dragged to Federal Court by Songwriter Demanding ‘Savage Love’ Royalties
Aug. 1 2023, Published 3:20 p.m. ET
Jason Derulo has been slapped with a federal lawsuit by a music producer who claimed he’s been stiffed on royalties, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, producer/songwriter Matthew Spatola aka Matty Spats sued Derulo [real name: Jason Desrouleaux] and Sony Music Entertainment.
Spatola said the lawsuit arises out of Derulo’s refusal to credit him as co-author on his 2020 song Savage Love.
The suit claimed the duo worked on the song at Derulo’s home in April 2020.
“Derulo then unilaterally released Savage Love, without providing any credit whatsoever to Spatola for the work they jointly created together. This lawsuit is filed to right that wrong, and to ensure that Spatola is properly credited as a co-writer of Savage Love and compensated for his contributions thereto,” the complaint read.
“Although Spatola had produced at Derulo’s home studio before Savage Love, those sessions involved a larger group of contributors and were entirely unrelated to Savage Love,” he added. “To Spatola’s knowledge, none of the music created at those earlier sessions was ever released by Derulo. Savage Love was different – the writing and conceptualizing of the instrumental composition and the creation of the actual recording occurred when Spatola and Derulo were the only contributors present in Derulo’s studio collaborating together to create Savage Love.”
Spatola said the song became a massive hit and even led to a remix featuring BTS.
“At no time did Derulo or Sony ever get permission from, account to, or even enter into any contract with, Spatola for his contributions to Savage Love and the BTS remix,” the suit said.
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Spatola, who has worked with Drake, Nipsey Hussle, and Lil Uzi Vert, said he tried to work out the issues with Derulo but a settlement never materialized.
“If Spatola had been properly credited as a co-author and co-producer of a hit like Savage Love, he would have received additional opportunities that were lost due to this lack of credit,” the suit alleged. “Composers credited with co-writing hit songs as writers are invited to work with other top performers in the industry, along with other lucrative opportunities.”
The producer said as a result of being left off as co-writer, he was “not given the opportunity to further advance his career in the music industry as a benefit to helping Derulo create the chart-topping song.”
“Had Derulo and Sony properly accounted to Spatola, he would have also directly generated substantial royalties,” the suit claimed.
Spatola has demanded unspecified damages from the defendants.