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Lady Gaga sued by former collaborator
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 19 March 2010
Oh this old scenario, producer helps aspiring artist to write some songs and make some early recordings, and helps promote said artist to record companies and the like, a record deal comes in, worldwide fame arrives, said producer is cut out of the equation pronto, said producer sues for his cut of the action. It’s the classic pop courts in action.
The artist facing the latest disgruntled producer lawsuit is Lady Gaga. Rob Fusari is suing for a mere $35 million amid claims he helped the Gaga-meister launch her career, wrote some of her early songs, came up with her stage name, and put her in front of record companies.
The producer says he and the Lady were a couple at the time, meaning she dumped him in both the commercial and personal sense of the phrase once the world foolishly agreed to allow the shock-popster into their collective consciousness.
Fusari, who has songwriter credits on Will Smith and Destiny’s Child hits, says that, although he originally dismissed the Gaga, he realised her potential after hearing her play at his New Jersey studio.
He then spent several months working with her, and, he argues, “radically reshaped her approach” in the process, taking her sound from the rock domain into the more lucrative pop genre.
He says that he and Gaga set up a company to control her outputs, in which he had a 20% stake. When she was signed up to Universal’s Interscope Records that deal should have been done with the company, ensuring him his cut of the loot. But, while he gets a producer credit on Gaga’s debut album ‘The Fame’ and has received some royalties (over $600,000 apparently), he says that is nowhere near the cut he is due.
The Gaga cabal are yet to respond to the litigation.