Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny has secured a major legal victory in a sprawling copyright case that placed nearly 2,000 reggaeton songs, and much of the genre's rhythmic foundation, under scrutiny.
U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. ruled Tuesday that Jamaican production duo Steely & Clevie had not established valid copyright control over the particular combination of musical elements they identified as the dembow rhythm. The decision reverses a July ruling that could have sent the dispute to a jury and extended the already years-long litigation.
Although Bad Bunny has become the face of the defendants' legal campaign, the case reaches far beyond him. The artists named as defendants or connected to recordings challenged in the litigation include Karol G, Daddy Yankee, J Balvin, Anuel AA, Ozuna, Rauw Alejandro, Maluma, Myke Towers, Wisin & Yandel, Don Omar, Luis Fonsi, Nicky Jam, Farruko, Sebastián Yatra, Becky G, Anitta, Camilo, Pitbull, Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, El Chombo, Alex Sensation, Cali y El Dandee, Jowell & Randy, Ñengo Flow and Stefflon Don.
International stars Drake, Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Cardi B, DJ Snake and Jason Derulo were also drawn into the case through collaborations and recordings that allegedly incorporated the disputed rhythm. Major labels and publishers connected to Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group were among the corporate defendants.
The lawsuit was brought by Cleveland "Clevie" Browne and the heirs of the late Wycliffe "Steely" Johnson, the influential Jamaican musicians and producers known professionally as Steely & Clevie. They argued that modern reggaeton's familiar boom-ch-boom-chick pulse could be traced to their 1989 instrumental composition "Fish Market."
That rhythm later appeared in Shabba Ranks' 1990 dancehall recording "Dem Bow," which helped give the beat its commonly used name. Variations traveled from Jamaica through Panama and Puerto Rico, where producers sampled, reconstructed and transformed the pattern as reggaeton developed into a distinct genre.
The plaintiffs claimed that nearly 2,000 recordings incorporated protected elements originating in "Fish Market." The disputed catalog encompasses some of the most commercially successful songs in contemporary Latin music, including Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina," "Dura" and "Rompe," Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito," Bad Bunny's "Tití Me Preguntó," "Mía," "La Santa" and "Safaera," El Chombo's "Dame Tu Cosita" and DJ Snake's "Taki Taki."
Wisin & Yandel were reportedly associated with almost 300 of the challenged songs, more than any other act identified in the case, according to World Music Views. Bad Bunny and his companies were originally linked to dozens of recordings, including collaborations with Drake, Daddy Yankee, Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow.
In July, Birotte concluded that conflicting testimony from music experts created factual questions that should be resolved by a jury. The decision left the industry facing a potentially lengthy trial and hundreds of millions of dollars in possible damages, according to Music Business Worldwide.
Bad Bunny's attorneys then asked the judge to reconsider. They argued that the musical arrangement claimed by the plaintiffs did not appear continuously in a single copyrighted composition. Instead, according to the defense, it had been reconstructed using elements taken from different sections of "Fish Market" and from related recordings, including "Pounder (Dub Mix II)," whose composition copyright is not owned by Steely & Clevie.
The judge ultimately agreed that the plaintiffs could not construct a protected work from separate musical fragments and then claim ownership over the resulting combination. Bad Bunny attorney Kenneth Freundlich summarized the defense bluntly: "You cannot copyright a rhythm by reverse-engineering it from three different songs once you're already in court," he told Billboard.
The ruling strikes down a central portion of the lawsuit but should not be interpreted as erasing Steely & Clevie's influence or ending every remaining claim in the consolidated litigation. It addresses whether the plaintiffs demonstrated ownership of the specific musical combination underlying their sweeping infringement theory.
The larger cultural debate is also unresolved. Reggaeton owes an enormous debt to Jamaican dancehall and to the Black Caribbean creators whose work was frequently reused without appropriate recognition or compensation. At the same time, granting one party control over a foundational rhythm could effectively create ownership over a basic building block of an entire genre.
For Bad Bunny, Karol G, Daddy Yankee, and the long list of artists caught in the litigation, the new ruling removes the most expansive threat. For reggaeton, it protects the shared rhythm that helped a Caribbean underground movement become one of the most powerful forces in global music.
