Bam Bam

Sister Nancy states plainly that Kanye West's team went through her publisher, Westbury Music, for authorization to use 'Bam Bam' on 'Famous' — and that she receives her royalty share as a result.

Sister Nancy went uncredited and unpaid for years — by her own account some 34 years. Two distinct, sequential moments are often conflated: first, in 1998, she grasped the song’s international reach when she heard “Bam Bam” in the film “Belly” — she’d never heard it played in Jamaica, so this was her general awareness that it had spread. Then, 16 years later in 2014, her daughter pointed out the song in a Reebok commercial — that specific moment was the practical catalyst that led her to pursue legal action, resulting in a settlement and a 50% ownership share. The 1998 discovery and the 2014 legal trigger are separate events, not competing accounts (sequence consistent across her own interviews with TheGrio, Grammy.com, CBC, Billboard and the Jamaica Gleaner).

In 2016 interviews (around Kanye West’s “Famous,” which samples this song) Sister Nancy confirmed the concrete terms: she now receives 50% of the royalties whenever “Bam Bam” is sampled, with Westbury Music holding the other 50%. The decades of non-payment have become a functioning arrangement — though she notes she still isn’t personally consulted before each individual use, collecting her share through the publishing structure rather than being invited to participate directly.

Sister Nancy partnered directly with VPAL Music (VP Records) for an official vinyl reissue of the album, explicitly framed as a way for fans to support the music with proceeds reaching the artist.