Dionne Warwick is stuck in a legal battle as the management company that negotiated her lucrative sample deal for Doja Cat’s massive hit “Paint the Town Red” demands millions in unpaid fees.
Artist Rights Enforcement Corp filed suit Monday, claiming the R&B legend is trying to dodge a 50% royalty split agreement that helped generate over $2.5 million in revenue. The lawsuit centers on Warwick’s 1964 classic “Walk on By,” which became the foundation for Doja Cat’s biggest commercial success to date.
“Paint the Town Red” dominated charts worldwide in 2023, spending three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the first rap song to reach the top spot that year. The track broke Spotify streaming records, eventually surpassing 1 billion streams, making Doja Cat’s sixth song to reach the milestone.
Artist Rights Enforcement claims it has represented Dionne Warwick since 2002, “at great effort and expense,” on complex rights issues ranging from Doja Cat sample clearance to a prior lawsuit by Atlantic Records.
According to Billboard, the company alleges Warwick agreed to a perpetual 50% cut of recovered royalties in exchange for representation “at no cost to her.”
“After decades of service, Ms. Warwick is now trying to evade paying Artists Rights hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars,” the lawsuit states. “In doing so, she has violated her contracts with Artists Rights.”
The financial stakes are substantial, given “Paint the Town Red’s” commercial dominance. The song generated over 84 million streams worldwide in its peak week and maintained consistent streaming numbers throughout its chart run.
Doja Cat’s album Scarlet, anchored by the Warwick-sampling hit, debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200.
According to court documents, Artist Rights helped increase Warwick’s royalty distributions by a “sixty-fold” margin over the years, generating significant revenue from various enforcement efforts. The company handled matters involving SoundExchange, Sony Music tax issues and the high-profile 2023 sample clearance that made “Paint the Town Red” possible.
The lawsuit reveals that Warwick began expressing reluctance to continue making payments to Artist Rights, and that her lawyers allegedly sent a termination letter in September. Still, the company argues it fulfilled all contractual obligations while Warwick “wrongfully and unreasonably repudiated the contracts.”
Neither Doja Cat nor Atlantic Records was named as a defendant in the case. Representatives for Warwick have not responded to requests for comment about the legal action.
Artist Rights Enforcement seeks damages for breach of contract and demands that Warwick honor the perpetual royalty arrangement that facilitated one of 2023’s biggest musical successes.