REPORTS REACHING THE STAR suggest that Ini Kamoze, the dreadlocked deejay who gave us the words I'm Stepping In Hotter This Year, may have quietly settled a deal with the publishers and/or representatives of Beyonce Knowles for the use of certain lines in her song Baby Boy.
Her single Baby Boy features Sean Paul and incorporates a few words from Ini Kamoze's single 'Hot Stepper', originally produced by Philip 'Fatis' Burrell, but later remixed by another set of producers.
Late last year at a public forum held at the University of The West Indies (UWI), Sean Paul's road manager Jeremy Harding stated that publishers for Ini Kamoze's music had approached them with regard to the song.
Harding told the gathering that lawyers were asking for a significant portion of the profits from the single, because of the use of Ini Kamoze's phrase I'm stepping in hotter this year among other words towards the end of the tune.
"Ini Kamoze's publishing company came to Sony and said they wanted thirty five percent. Sony's lawyers then contacted our lawyer and said we needed to take care of it...we told them that Sean never put the sample in there, she did. She sings it."
Since that forum, Harding told THE STAR that Sean Paul's management was never again contacted about the issue, so they were not sure of the outcome.
The single was released late last year and soared to the top of the Billboard Hot R&B Hip/Hop chart where it spent nine weeks at number one. The album on which it was included, Dangerously In Love was this year certified triple platinum (over three million units sold) by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA), and at March 6, it sat at number 14 on the Billboard Top R&B Hip/Hop Albums chart.
THE STAR tried repeatedly to contact Ini Kamoze, but without success. Repeated checks with Elektra Records, the label under which the album appeared, remained unsuccessful as well.
Sources close to the deejay, however, although very tight-lipped about the issue, told THE STAR that there has already been an agreement reached between the parties involved, and everything has been settled.
Several calls made to Beyonce's publicist at Sony Entertainment, Yvette Noel Shore, were unanswered as she was said to be out of office. When referred to the International Publicist, Jim Seaby, he was also unavailable for comment.
