Mr Eazi's emPawa Africa could pay $456,000 after copyright case against Bad Bunny crumbles

A copyright lawsuit brought against global Latin superstar Bad Bunny by Nigerian producer Dera has collapsed, and now Bad Bunny's team wants emPawa Africa to foot the bill.

Bad Bunny's legal team has filed a request in federal court seeking $456,312 in legal fees from emPawa Africa, the label founded by Nigerian artist Mr Eazi, following the dismissal of a copyright infringement suit that had been building since 2023.

The case centred on ‘Enséñame a Bailar,’ a track from Bad Bunny's catalogue that Nigerian producer Dera, full name Ezeani Chidera Godfrey, claimed featured an uncleared sample of ‘Empty My Pocket,’ a 2019 song he produced for Joeboy.

The suit was filed last May, with Mr Eazi's emPawa Africa initially named as a co-plaintiff after Mr Eazi had publicly accused Bad Bunny's team of copyright infringement and claimed they had repeatedly stonewalled attempts to secure proper credit for Dera and Joeboy.

The case unravelled steadily from the start of this year. In January, Dera's lawyers withdrew from the suit, citing what they described as "irreparable differences" over legal strategy.

emPawa Africa was subsequently dismissed as a plaintiff for missing filing deadlines. Dera himself then missed a March 6th deadline to continue the case and failed to appear at a February 5th discovery hearing.

On March 9th, Judge Otis Wright of the federal court dismissed the suit entirely, writing that the court found "dismissal is appropriate" and concluding that Dera had "abandoned this case." The judge added that allowing the action to continue "would prejudice defendants and would be against the public interest."

Bad Bunny's team had maintained throughout that the sample in question had been legitimately cleared through Lakizo Entertainment, which had distributed the song at one point.

Dera's lawsuit countered that Lakizo was never authorised to grant that clearance, a dispute that reportedly also triggered a separate legal battle between Lakizo and emPawa, which led to ‘Empty My Pocket’ being pulled from streaming platforms entirely.

With the case dismissed and a $456,000 fee demand now on the table, it seems to have ended considerably worse than it started.

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