Kuits on song for MC Tunes

MANCHESTER musician Nicholas Lockett, who as rapper MC Tunes had a successful pop career in the early 1990s, has recouped unpaid royalties from a major record label.

Mr Lockett was represented by law firm Kuits Solicitors in his case with Universal Publishing and several royalty collection societies.

The matter related to the use in 1998 by Universal’s artist FatBoy Slim whose hit song ‘Gangster Tripping’ featured MC Tunes’ vocals sampled from the Dust Junkys song ‘Rinse (BeatBox Wash)’.
 
‘Gangster Tripping’ went on to chart at Number 3 in the UK chart and sell thousands of copies worldwide. FatBoy Slim’s album ‘You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby’ on which the song featured also reached Number 1 in the UK Album Charts.

Despite such commercial success, MC Tunes was not paid any royalties by Universal or the royalty collection societies.

Rudi Kidd, entertainment and media consultant at Kuits began to investigate MC Tunes’ income streams from agreements he had signed and traced royalties due to him.

Mr Kidd said: “This is a common problem in the music industry where artists and songwriters lose contact with their record company, publisher and the collection societies.  The problem arises in re-establishing contact with them in order to trace unpaid income.”