It is hardly a crime to scrounge on another’s
intellectual property, little wonder it is
practiced with some measure of gusto. In this
illuminating piece, we take a look at some of
the culprits of this particular crime.


P-Square

Peter and Paul Okoye of P-Square are one of
the biggest artistes out of Africa. They’re also
one of the most guilty when it comes to
copyright issue. The duo brazenly lifts lyrics
and rhythms from other songs; especially
international ones. They are known to have
sampled existing music for their songs like
‘Danger,’ ‘Get Squared,’ ‘Last Nite,’ ‘Roll It,’
‘Onyinye,’ ‘Game Over’ among others. It
should be recalled that an actress, Steph
Nora-Okereke, once accused the twin brothers
of stealing her song, ‘Jeje’ which she had
earlier sent to their brother, Jude, to get his
opinion.

Ketchup

Ketchup’s career is just warming up, but he
needs to be really careful if he wants to have
a long stay in the music industry. In one of his
latest songs, ‘Pam Pam,’ Ketchup wantonly
lifted the lyrics from Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me,’
and Chaka Demus & Pliers’ ‘Bam Bam.’ The
copyright infringement is so blatant as
Ketchup sang, ‘Shoddy came in and she
caught me red-handed sleeping with the girl
next door...’ which is the exact lyrics used by
Shaggy in the original song. It would be
interesting to see what will happen if Ketchup
travels out of the country to perform ‘Pam
Pam,’ and Shaggy, Chaka Demus & Pliers, or
their representatives, get a wind of it. Well;
your guess is as good as mine!


DI’JA

Half-Sierra-Leonan, half-Nigerian Mavin singer,
Dija,is also culpable when it comes to
copyright infringement. In her latest song,
‘Take Kiss,’ she sampled another Nigerian
singer, Jodie’s ‘Kuchi Kuchi’ melody. She also
borrowed a leaf from Ketchup as she ‘stole’
from Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me’ for one of the
verses of her song as well.


Olamide

This dude from Bariga, Lagos, is distinctly
talented and creative; everybody knows that.
But he is also in this copyright bus. He used
the name of a popular old movie, ‘Yemi My
Lover’ as the title of his 2013 hit-song; and of
course, that made the record more successful
as it invoked nostalgic feelings in people who
are familiar with the movie. In an earlier chat,
Yemi Ayebo, who is the producer of the
movie, stated that Olamide did not seek his
permission in any way before using the film-
title. However, Yemi stated that he likes
Olamide’s music; hence, he wouldn’t be
dragging the ‘Durosoke’ rapper to the court.
It should be recalled that D’banj’s producer,
Deevee, recently called out the rapper for
stealing D’banj’s song to make his own ‘Don’t
Stop’ which is contained in his ‘Eyan
Mayweather’ album.


Clarence Peters

Nigerian music video
directors have been given kudos for the good
quality of music videos they have managed to
churn out over the years. But many of them
are also borrowing other people’s goods
without acknowledgment Clarence Peters is
alleged to have stolen concepts from many
foreign songs for the videos he directs. He
reportedly copied the idea of South African
rapper, Tumi Molekane’s ‘Asinamali’ for Tiwa
Savage’s ‘Eminado.’
Clarence was also accused of yanking the
concept of US rap group, Slaughterhouse’s
‘My Life’ video for Ice Prince’s ‘VIP.’ The
above examples are just some of the many
allegations against Peters, though he has
never addressed the issue.


MOE MUSA

London-based Mr. Moe Musa is another video
director walking the thin line of copyright
infringement.
He is alleged to have stolen the concept for
Davido’s ‘Skelewu’ music video from LMFAO’s
‘Party Anthem’ as both music videos have
similar scenes and sequence.


2face/Blackface

Former Plantashun Boiz group members,
2face and Blackface have been at
loggerheads for a while due to issues of
copyright. Blackface is alleged to have written
the widely-successful ‘African Queen’ which
2face got acclaim for. However, 2face later
paid Blackface royalties from the song. More
recently, Blackface accused 2face of also
denying him credit in the song ‘Let Somebody
Love You’ which they both wrote together in
their days as Plantashun Boiz. 2face later
featured American singer, Bridget Kelly in the
song, and included it in his The Ascension
album.


Wizkid/Blackface

Blackface also recently accused Wizkid of
stealing the lyrics for his global hit,
‘Ojuelegba’ from him.


Davido/Password

Omo Baba Olowo singer, Davido had his share
of copyright infringement controversy when an
upcoming act, Password accused him of
stealing the concept and lyrics of the song,
‘Gobe.’

Skales/Wizkid

Former EME signees, Wizkid and Skales went
for each other’s jugular over the widely
popular song, ‘Azonto.’ Skales claimed that
Wizzy stole the song from him.



http://www.praizeblog.com/2016/03/top-nigerian-artistes-in-copyright-mess.html?m=0



cc lalasticla

Which of them should the EFCC go for?

Lol

no one made an example of them so they keep rolling out stuffs like that and get overly rewarded.....Its things like this that bury creativity deep in the ground.....Robin Thicke paid handsomely for a similar offence.....

Okay! Nairaland and lists though... so tell me Op, are there saint musicians out there?
Make una call me when a topic like "list of Nigeria musicians that eats everyday is created".
Mtchew...

But he is also in this copyright bus. He used
the name of a popular old movie, ‘Yemi My
Lover’ as the title of his 2013 hit-song; and of
course, that made the record more successful
as it invoked nostalgic feelings in people who
are familiar with the movie. In an earlier chat,
Yemi Ayebo, who is the producer of the
movie, stated that Olamide did not seek his
permission in any way before using the film-
title.

The fact that he used a title that correspond with another movie doesn't make that a copyright infringement. Who knows if "yemi my lover" which he choose as his album title is a relation(expression) of his experience or someone's.

pls when did using a title name become copyright infringement.....Just becos someone else called his Movie YEMI MY LOVER does that mean i cant call my GF yemi as my my LOVER....i may not have Phd but i do have Common sense joor

cc lalasticalala seun