Chris Brown has been hit with a lawsuit by songwriter Steve Chokpelle, who claims he was denied credit and compensation for two commercially successful songs that allegedly generated millions in revenue.
In a suit filed at a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, Chokpelle accused Brown of excluding him from payment and proper recognition for the tracks Monalisa and Sensational. He alleged that he wrote the lyrics to Monalisa in 2020 during a studio session with Brown and singer Sean Kingston at Brown’s California home.
Despite the song’s success—peaking at number eight on Billboard’s US Afrobeats Songs chart—Chokpelle said he was not credited on the Lojay and Sarz-assisted track and has “never received any compensation.”
Chokpelle further claimed that he co-wrote the lyrics to Sensational in 2021 with producer Onyekachi Emenalo, professionally known as Krazytunez, before sharing the song with Brown. The track later topped Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and reportedly earned over $1 million in revenue.
Although Chokpelle is listed as a composer on Sensational, the lawsuit alleges he was intentionally excluded from the song’s copyright registration and has received no share of the earnings.
The filing states that Chris Brown has benefited significantly from both songs through revenue, acclaim and goodwill, while Chokpelle was unjustly denied recognition and payment. As a result, the songwriter is seeking formal acknowledgment as an author and co-copyright owner of both tracks, along with damages of at least $1 million.
The lawsuit names Chris Brown, Sean Kingston, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Publishing Group as defendants. Brown’s representatives have yet to comment, while Kingston is currently serving a federal prison sentence for an unrelated fraud case.
