Ishmael Sadiq Montague, who co-produced Chris Brown‘s 2016 single Party under the name ISM, has sued Sony Music Entertainment for at least USD $1,247,500.
Montague claims Sony made false statements to delay redirecting his royalties on the track to a company that had agreed to buy them.
He also alleges Sony has been paying him half the producer royalty rate he is owed on Party, which features Usher and Gucci Mane.
The complaint was filed on October 16 in New York federal court, with Montague representing himself.
The filing, reviewed by MBW, can be read in full here.
According to the complaint, Montague and co-producer A1 signed a producer agreement for Party with Brown‘s company, Chris Brown Entertainment LLC, on November 1, 2016.
The track was released by RCA Records in December 2016 and appeared on Brown‘s 2017 album Heartbreak on a Full Moon.
The deal set a producer royalty of 3%, of which 1.5% goes to Montague after his split with A1.
Sony has paid that royalty directly to Montague‘s company, SE7EN INTL LLC, for nearly a decade, the filing says.
On June 25, 2026, Montague agreed to sell his royalty interests in a number of recordings, including Party, to a buyer named in the complaint as Xposure Music Holdings Inc.
Under that agreement, Sony‘s payments on the account from September 1, 2026, onward were due to go to the buyer.
Montague alleges that Sony held up the switch for six weeks, obstructing the sale.
During that period, Sony insisted that he sign a letter of direction – the document that tells a label whom to pay – on its own form, the complaint says.
Sony‘s representatives described those requirements as “rigid” and “unchangeable” company policy, according to the filing.
The complaint alleges that Sony‘s form required the payee to acknowledge having no right to audit Sony or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries. The complaint counts RCA Records and Chris Brown Entertainment LLC among them, calling them “the very entities whose accounting of the account was in question.”
On July 24, a Sony representative wrote that the company had “not received direction from the artists” regarding Montague‘s royalties on Party, the complaint states.
That afternoon, the same representative allegedly wrote that Sony was “not accounting to the producer already,” and that “if Sony had previously accepted it, there would already be an account.”
“Both statements were false, and Sony knew them to be false,” the complaint claims, pointing to Sony‘s own earnings statements showing direct payments to Montague on Party since at least 2020.
In a July 28 reply, Sony confirmed that “we are accounting on the Chris Brown track,” but did not concede that its earlier statements were wrong, the complaint says.
The complaint also alleges that Sony already had an alternative form on file – one Montague was willing to sign – while telling him the terms could not change.
File metadata on that document, a Producer Royalty Assignment Form, shows it was created by a Sony Music employee on August 13, according to the filing.
Sony‘s representatives again called the terms unchangeable on August 17 and August 24, the complaint says.
The same metadata shows the form was last modified on the evening of August 24, when Montague escalated the matter to Sony‘s Office of the General Counsel.
Montague refused the letter of direction in writing at 9:07am Pacific time on August 25.
At 10:28am the same morning, Sony sent him the alternative form as a substitute, noting it “has not yet been officially rolled out to all royalty participants,” the complaint states.
According to the filing, that form did not contain the language Montague had objected to, and he signed it on August 29. The signed form includes no release or waiver, the complaint adds.
Montague also alleges that Sony applied financial pressure at the same time. On August 24, the complaint says, an offer tied part of the money owed to him under the sale to his acceptance of the payment direction Sony was demanding, with the threat that payment would be withheld for longer if he refused.
The buyer, Xposure Music Holdings, confirmed the arrangement that same evening, according to the filing.
“The pressure was wrongful,” Montague‘s complaint states. “Requirements that survive six weeks of informed, written objection from plaintiff’s manager and the counsel he was paying were never requirements – they were positions of convenience, held while holding them was costless and abandoned once they had served their purpose.
“The objection of plaintiff’s authorized representatives was plaintiff’s own objection, and Sony had no basis to treat it as less.”
Montague argues that the delay was designed to secure the audit waiver.
“The concealment served a purpose,” the complaint states. “The longer the nonexistent requirements held, the more likely the acknowledgment Sony demanded – that the payee has no right to audit Sony or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries – would be executed.
“The underpayment plaintiff reported in writing on August 25, 2026, on the account Sony was directing, makes the value of that acknowledgment to Sony apparent.”
That alleged underpayment is the second part of Montague‘s case.
“Separately, Sony has applied a producer rate on the Party master at half the agreed rate: 0.75% rather than the 1.5% to which plaintiff is entitled after the split with co-producer A1 (3% gross),” the complaint states.
A third-party review identified the discrepancy in July 2026, according to the filing.
Montague reported the underpayment to Sony in writing on August 25, putting it at approximately 50% on the most recent statement period.
Montague‘s complaint does not put a dollar figure on the alleged underpayment.
He is seeking at least USD $1,247,500 in compensation, plus punitive damages on his fraud claims.
“The compensation sought is not a computation of royalties; it is what the conduct cost, and what it would have cost Sony to obtain those concessions honestly,” the complaint states.
Montague is also asking the court to order a full accounting and a court-supervised audit of his Sony account, and of any other recordings he has, or may have, a royalty stake in, at Sony‘s expense.
“The compensation sought is not a computation of royalties; it is what the conduct cost, and what it would have cost Sony to obtain those concessions honestly.”
Ishmael Sadiq Montague‘s complaint
The complaint brings seven claims, including fraud, interference with the sale of his royalties, and a claim under a New York law barring deceptive business practices.
Montague sent Sony‘s legal department a notice of claim on October 13, according to the filing.
Two days later, Sony‘s in-house counsel denied liability, arguing there was no direct contract between the company and Montague, the complaint says.
“Sony now describes the matter as ‘fully resolved.’ It is not,” the complaint states.
MBW has reached out to Sony Music for comment.
Montague‘s suit follows other royalty claims brought against Sony in the same New York court this year.
In July, Jermaine Dupri and his So So Def companies sued Sony for more than USD $18 million, alleging years of unpaid and underreported royalties, including producer royalties, on records by artists including Kris Kross, Xscape, and Da Brat.
Dupri dropped that suit on August 28, telling the court the parties had “resolved the matter.”
The band Lit settled its streaming royalty suit against Sony in July, four months after claiming it was owed more than USD $800,000 under a 1998 contract with RCA.
In neither case did Sony or the plaintiffs disclose terms.
Montague‘s complaint does not say how much Xposure Music Holdings agreed to pay, or describe the company further. It does say the deal’s profit-share terms depended in part on Sony‘s accounting of the Party royalties.
A music financing company called Xposure Music, founded in Montreal in 2021, secured USD $42.5 million in debt and equity funding last December to acquire more independent music catalogs, as MBW reported.
That round followed Xposure‘s partnership with distributor Too Lost, under which the two companies co-fund catalog acquisitions that Xposure sources and underwrites.Music Business Worldwide
