In this week's Legal Beat newsletter, a massive reggaetón lawsuit moves forward, Taylor beats an "absurd" case, Chris Brown faces a $13 million verdict and more.
Bad Bunny performs onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif.
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
THE BIG STORY: If you’ve ever listened to reggaetón, you’ve heard it: Boom-ch-boom-chick, boom-ch-boom-chick, boom-ch-boom-chick. That infectious percussion — called the dembow rhythm — is a “sonic signpost” that plays under almost every track in the genre.
For the past five years, it’s also been the subject of a truly sprawling lawsuit targeting Bad Bunny, Karol G and more than a hundred other artists over accusations that dembow was ripped from a single sample of a 1989 song. That extraordinary case, over a track called “Fish Market” by reggae duo Steely & Clevie, claims that nearly 2,000 tracks have thus infringed copyrights — essentially, that an entire genre is uncleared.
