The smash hit by the South African pop-iano star is at the center of this legal storm, where Two producers are alleging unfair credit and payment.
Yesterday Monday July 28 marked two years since Tyla’s smash ear worm song Water arrived and went on to catapult the South African singer to global fame.
Related: Quiz: How Well Acquainted Are You With Tyla?
The track that smoothly blends amapiano, pop and R&B, backed by Tyla’s smooth voice soon topped charts worldwide, including peaking at Number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Read Also: Thanks To Viral Single ‘Water’, Tyla Makes Historic Billboard Hot 100 Debut
By early 2025, it had passed one billion Spotify streams and over 300 million views on YouTube. That success brought major award nominations and wins in awards from Billboard, MTV, BET and a historic Grammy win for Tyla, making her the first African woman to win a Grammy for Best African Music Performance.
It is now at the center of a legal battle over royalty payments. The heart of the conflict stems from claims by the producers helped make Water, Olmo Zucca and Jackson LoMastro taking Tyla and fellow producer Sammy SoSo (Samuel Awuku), and Sony/Epic Records to court in California in April 2025.
The plaintiffs assert that they were unfairly listed as minor contributors and allocated only 10% of the song’s royalties publishing royalties; less than the industry standard 12.5% that’s given to co-composers as is the custom (given that they wrote parts of the beat and melody, so they should be top‑line producers). The pair in their lawsuit claim that they had initially attempted to resolve the matter with Awuku before the song’s release in 2023 by reaching out to him to discuss the royalties split, but their efforts were met with refusal. Their complaint outlines that all four producers involved; Zucca, LoMastro, Awuku, and Goufar Tricky Stewart (received 5%) did more than just minor work and contributed equally to the final version of the song.
Despite this, the plaintiffs claim that they did not receive the fair share of royalties they were owed. Additionally, the suit alleges that Awuku took a larger share of 15% of the publishing rights for himself, deviating from the usual 12.5% each producer would typically receive. The stalled negotiations have further prompted them to file the formal lawsuit.
According to court filings, their ask is that they are named as top‑line producers of Water. They additionally want the full 12.5% of publishing royalties that should come with that credit. Olmo Zucca and Jackson LoMastro are also seeking their share of master recording royalties, such as streaming payments from SoundExchange. Lastly, they are asking for a correction of the public credits and compensation for harm to their reputations.
As of late July 2025, neither Tyla’s team nor Sony Music/Epic Records has publicly responded. The case may move toward a settlement or go before a judge. If Zucca and LoMastro win, more behind‑the‑scenes creators might push for clearer credit and higher pay. Fans and industry professionals are keen to see how this legal drama unfolds.
This ongoing case highlights how important fair credit is when songs mix talents from different countries. It also puts a spotlight on the often-murky waters of music royalties and production credits.
Music and Entertainment lawyers say that the outcome of this dispute could have significant implications for future royalty negotiations in the music industry and could set a new standard for producer credits in global hits and ideally could change how contracts for international collaborations are written in the future.
Perhaps the key learning for our music creators is to formalize working arrangements and have well written agreements/ contracts and splits sheets, and when in doubt of how to go about it, they can seek guidance from an entertainment lawyer. It may sound costly but it saves you a lot in the future in case of a dispute. As an entertainment blogger/ writer and music publicist, I have been contacted by some producers and song writers in the past 2 weeks, and their concerns have been around the fact that they wrote songs for some of the top artists here in Uganda and their pain point was that the artists enjoy the glory of the commercial success of the songs while them as contributors don’t get a cut in terms of royalties. I have been encouraging them to do as I mentioned at the start of this paragraph. That they should FORMALIZE FORMALIZE and FORMALIZE, going forward.