‘Running in Circles’: Post Malone Sued by Songwriter, Sues Back

American songwriter Post Malone has received a lawsuit from songwriter Tyler Armes for not paying him for the song Circles. According to the lawsuit he just filed, one of Malone’s biggest hits, Circles, was co-written by Armes, who got zero credit, and even worse zero money.

Tyler Armes says he and Post hooked up to write a song in August 2018; at the encouragement of Post’s manager. What they eventually created was a track that became the monster hit, Circles which went all the way to number 1 last year and is my current ringtone.

According to the documents, obtained by TMZ, Tyler claims he co-wrote the chords and the bass line for the song and had input on other portions, such as the guitar melody. Clearly, his point is that he did more than enough to earn a writing credit.

Listen to Circles below:

Instead, Tyler says Malone released Circles on August 30, 2019, without his name on it. According to the suit, he’d been negotiating with Post’s camp earlier in the month. He claims they offered him 5 percent of publishing royalties with no credit. Tyler says he pushed back for a bigger cut and a co-writing credit, but they told him to kick rocks.

In documents, he claims Post’s manager had a written exchange with him about it; that the manager even told him Post acknowledged Tyler’s contribution.

However, verbal acknowledgment doesn’t pay bills. So, he’s suing Post to get the co-writer credit and a fair cut of past and future royalties on Circles.

He’s also suing producer Frank Dukes, who does have a writing credit. According to Tyler, Dukes was present for the 2018 jam session that birthed the track.

Post sues back

Post Malone is now suing the guy who sued him, claiming Armes is not a co-writer on Circles and didn’t contribute anything to the song. In the new lawsuit, Malone says Armes was at the first recording session but didn’t write any of the music or lyrics.

Also, Malone claims Armes was absent from subsequent recording sessions for the track. Malone says the lawsuit against him is an age-old story in the industry.

In his suit, Post claims Armes came outta the woodwork, falsely claimed to take credit for the song and demanded unwarranted and unearned windfall profits from the song.

Only time will tell who is right in this fight. It would be unfortunate if Armes truly co-wrote the song and loses out on that huge paycheck.