Obrafour, a legendary Ghanaian rapper, is suing Drake for copying his 2003 remix of ‘Oye Ohene’ on his song ‘Calling My Name’ from the Honestly Nevermind album.
Obrafour claimed in documents given to a New York court that Drake infringed on his copyright when he sampled his music without authorization.
“Defendants released the Infringing Work on June 17, 2022, despite the fact that an agent of one or more of the Defendants had previously contacted Obrafour seeking permission to use the Copyrighted Work in the Infringing Work.”
“Obrafour never granted Defendants permission to use the Copyrighted Work, and the Infringing Work was released mere days later,” the complaint stated in portions.
The Ghanaian rapper stated that the release of ‘Calling My Name’ by Drake and other accused benefited significantly from his work.
“To date, in the 304 days since the Infringing Work was released, the Infringing Work has been streamed over 4.1 million times on YouTube, over 47,442,160 times on Spotify, and tens of millions of times on Apple Music.”
“In addition to generating enormous sums of global streams and sales across numerous platforms, the Infringing Work has also been exploited by the Defendants via other means, including live performance.”
Obrafour, for example, is claiming damages of at least $10,000,000.
In addition, he seeks an injunction requiring the “defendants and their agents, employees, officers, attorneys, successors, licensees, partners, and assigns, and all persons acting in concert or participation with each or any one of them, to cease directly and indirectly infringing, and causing, enabling, facilitating, encouraging, promoting, inducing, and/or participating in the infringement of any of Obrafour’s rights protected by the Copyright Act.”
Meanwhile, other defendants in the complaint include the infringing work’s writers, producers, performers, record labels, entertainment firms, publishers, managers, administrators, and/or distributors.
Drake, a Canadian rapper, startled his fans with ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ in June 2022, but it was a double surprise for Ghanaians.
On Track 6, ‘Calling My Name,’ Drake sampled a popular song by Obrafour, one of Ghana’s top musicians alive today.
The sample can be found at 0:53 seconds into Drake’s song, where it switches into a house music sound, pushing the song into a new type of ambiance than it had previously.
The chant “Killa cut!” can be heard several times.
Mantse Aryeequaye sang that part as an opening to the late 2003 remix of ‘Oye Ohene’ from the Ntete Pa album.
Click here to read the full court document
Original Story on: myjoyonline.com