Legendary Ghanaian rapper Obrafour is suing famous Canadian rapper Drake for sampling his 2003 remix of `Oye Ohene` on his music `Calling My Name` off the Honestly Nevermind album.
In the files provided to a courtroom docket in New York, Obrafour said that Drake infringed on his copyright whilst he sampled his music without permission.
“Defendants launched the Infringing Work on June 17, 2022,despite the truth an agent of first Defendants had contacted Obrafour looking to gain Obrafour`s permission for using the Copyrighted Work in the Infringing Work.”
“Obrafour did not granted the Defendants permission to apply the Copyrighted Work and the Infringing work was launched some days later,” part of the record read.
The Ghanaian rapper indicated that Drake and other defendants following the discharge of `Calling My Name` has significantly benefited from his works.
“To date, over some 304 days which have elapsed when the Infringing Work was launched, the Infringing Work has already streamed over 4.1 million times on YouTube, streamed over 47,442, times on Spotify, and streamed tens of millions times on Apple Music.”
“In addition to producing considerable sums of world streams and income throughout several platforms, the Infringing Work has additionally been exploited by way of the Defendants through different means, such as live performance.”
Among others, Obrafour is looking for damages in an amount no less than $10,000,000.
He is likewise looking for an injunction requiring the “defendants and their agents, employees, officers, attorneys, successors, licensees, partners, and assigns, and all people appearing in live performance or participation with every or anybody of them, to stop immediately infringing, and causing, enabling, facilitating, encouraging, promoting, inducing, and/or collaborating with the infringement of any of Obrafour`s rights protected by Copyright Act.”
Meanwhile, other defendants in the case are writers, producers, performers, document labels, amusement companies, publishers, managers, administrators, and/or vendors of the infringing works.
In June 2022, Canadian rapper, Drake amazed his enthusiasts with `Honestly, Nevermind` however for Ghanaians, it became a double surprise.
On Track 6, `Calling My Name`, Drake sampled a loved famous music from certainly one among Ghana`s first-class musicians alive, Obrafour.
The pattern is observed at 0:fifty three seconds of the Drake tune, wherein it turn into a house tune vibe sending the music right into a specific kind of environment in comparison to its preliminary trajectory.
“Killa cut!” is the mantra heard more than one times.
That section was sung by Mantse Aryeequaye as an opener to the past 2003 remix of `Oye Ohene` off the Ntete Pa album.
