“Hey Ne-Yo, stap tell di people dem lie, man.”
That was the response from Dancehall producer NotNice when veteran journalist Anthony Miller told him that he was the one person who “can set the record straight” in relation to recent claims made by American R&B singer Ne-Yo that he had been open to Spice and Vybz Kartel’s use of his Miss Independent instrumental for their Romping Shop hit, from day one.
As he did a few weeks ago, after Ne-Yo made the statement during an appearance on Revolt’s Drink Champs podcast, NotNice affirmed that he, as the song’s producer and Vybz Kartel were slapped with multiple “cease and desist” letters after Romping Shop began climbing the Billboard charts.
In January 2009, Vybz Kartel had reported that EMI Music Publishing had ordered that Romping Shop be “destroyed and pulled from all radio stations, television stations and the internet”. And, according to NotNice, the Portmore Empire leader tried his best to negotiate with Ne-Yo and his publishing company, even going as far as to give them full ownership of the song.
“Was Ne-Yo even in a position to clear anything?” Miller asked of NotNice in the interview.
“Maybe it was outta him control fi clear it. But we received – myself and Vybz Kartel, received a cease and desist letter twice, because the song was out there on the original riddim,” NotNice explained.
Added NotNice: “(We) build ova di riddim, same chord progression, same everyting an (they sent) cease and desist one more time, seh ‘yow di riddim too close’”.
According to NotNice, Ne-Yo’s people gave himself and Kartel a fight that was hard for them to comprehend, as they thought the matter could have been settled amicably from the get-go.
“I think dem coulda deal wid di situation differently, even though we were wrong for how we went about it in the first place. If we were willing to give up our rights – yea is your riddim, and meck wi just meck di song stay, everybaddy a eat suppm,” he said.
“One a di biggest song come outta Dancehall inna di past… Rampin Shop stamp inna music. Years pass an wi still a talk bout it.
The EMI cease and desist letter, which Kartel had forwarded to the Star, had stated that Romping Shop by Vybz Kartel and Spice infringes the copyright in ‘Miss Independent’ and that cdlearance of this use of ‘Miss Independent’ had and would “not be forthcoming” and that all recordings of the infringing track will be re-called and destroyed and that no further copies will be issued, and (ii) that the audio and/or video will be taken down immediately from all Internet sites.”
In addition, he said he had actually had his mind set on clearing Romping Shop, especially due to the fact that “the streets cleared it right away which made it virtually impossible to not clear it, even if I was thinking about not clearing it which by the way I was never thinking about not clearing it”.
A few months after the cease and desist letter had been served, Ne-Yo appeared on Reggae Sumfest in Montego Bay, where after singing Miss Independent, he lip-synched Romping Shop, to the delight of the audience, an indication that he realized the song was unstoppable.
Two years later he appeared at ATI in Negril, where he performed Romping Shop with Spice, the two gyrating on each other to wild cheers from the party-goers.