Producers Olmo Zucca and Jackson Lomastro are suing Grammy Award-winning artist Tyla and her record label for disputes over royalties on her hit song “Water.” The lawsuit filed a lawsuit in California, claiming that compensation and credit allocations for the 2024 Grammy Award-winning single are misaligned.
According to court documents, Zuka and Lamastro claimed they were unfairly excluded from the song’s financial success. The producers asserted that they played a major creative role at the Los Angeles Development Conference in March 2023, where they worked with Rayan El-Hussein Goufar (professionally known as Rayo) and Awuku.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiff argued that it violated industry practice typical of co-authors. They claim that Awuku, which distributes royalties, allocated 15% of the shares to Zucca, Lomastro and Goufar, with only 10% each, while Christopher “Tricky” Stewart was only 5%.
The emphasis of the legal application shows that Zuka and Lamastro are not hiring conference musicians, but creative partners entitled to full production credits. They further claimed that Awuku was unreasonably claiming that he was the sole producer endorsed when he was secretly negotiating a separate financial agreement with Tyla, which excluded them from the song’s revenue.
The alleged effort to resolve the matter privately was reportedly failed, with Awuku allegedly refusing to have meaningful discussions. Since “water” has exceeded a billion streams on Spotify only and received a lot of praise, producers are now seeking court intervention to address what they call professional and financial harm.
Their lawsuit calls for official recognition as the chief producer, 12.5% stake in the publishing royalties, appropriate owner records royalties, Soundexchange’s digital performance payments, and compensation for reputational losses and revenue opportunities.
