Stop stealing our songs, D’banj’s manager tells Olamide

CHUX OHAI writes on the controversy surrounding four current Nigerian songs

Whenever there is a case of copyright infringement in the music industry, it is usually between a recording artiste on one hand and an individual or organisation, on the other. In most cases, the artiste would be the one accusing the other party – most likely to be a records pirate – of stealing his intellectual property.

But a music producer, Divine Austins, aka Deevee, who is also the official producer of D’banj, changed the norm when he took to Twitter a few days ago to accuse popular rapper, Olamide, of stealing ideas for new songs from his boss.

In three tweets, Deevee claimed that Olamide had been stealing concepts from D’banj’s recording outlet, DB Records, each time he visited the place in the past.

Addressing Olamide directly, he said, “With due respect, have you run out of ideas? Every time you come to our zones, you always got to steal some idea. I won’t let this fly.”

The producer went on to provide a link to ‘Shake it’, a song by D’banj, which is one of the reasons for the outburst on the social media network. The other song believed to have been lifted off an original idea by D’banj and his team is Olamide’s ‘Don’t Stop’.

Then, as if sensing that his action might annoy his boss, he apologised to D’banj, tweeting, “I am very sorry boss. I mean no disrespect, but I have stayed silent for too long and I am ready to face the consequences for dropping the link.”

Olamide, who has just been named the Hottest Nigerian Artiste in 2015 by MTV Base, is yet to respond to the allegations and efforts made by our correspondent to get his reaction through his manager, Alexander, failed to yield positive results.

Also, two songs recently released by Five Star Music and the star-studded Mavin Records, titled ‘Ebeano’ and ‘Jantamanta’, respectively, are the subjects of a controversy currently raging in the music industry.

According to watchers of the industry, both songs are too similar in terms of the beats to be taken as coincidental. It is speculated that one of the two music companies must have copied or ‘stolen’ the original idea for the beat from the other.

But investigation by our correspondent showed that the beat actually originated from the boss of Mavin Records, Don Jazzy, and it leaked to the wrong hands after he sent out snippets of it.

While the accusing finger has not been pointed at anyone, so far, the lack of reactions on both sides seems ominous.

Pundits say the current controversies may be a sign of a rupture that is bound to come as many of the artistes appear to be contented with mutual but subtle copyright infringement.

Even in terms of videos, some Nigerian directors seem to be contented lifting ideas from their foreign counterparts and from compatriots who have successfully tried out their initiatives.

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