The issue of copyright ownership of a material is it a script, a
song, a beat, a verse line, a concept, a dance step, has been a
major challenge in the entertainment industry especially the
music industry everywhere in the world. To be honest, it is even
worst here in Nigeria since there are no strict laws protecting
intellectual property, discovery and development.
GospelOnDeBeatz made major headlines few days back on the
recently released video of the song “Celebrate” featuring our
Burna Boy. Sure, if you’re a Burna Boy follower, you will know
that this guy has got everything going for him musically.
GospelOnDeBeatz is an ace-producer based in the Federal
Capital City, Abuja who has worked with a lot budding musicians
most notably ‘All of you’ for Davido.
In June of 2013, a song was released on the internet with the
tag; ‘BURNA BOY – CELEBRATE [produced by GOSPEL
ONDEBEAT]‘…fans of Burna boy were excited. When Burna Boy’s
LIFE album came out, the song was conspicuously missing.
Unknowingly, the song actually belonged to producer; Gospel.
On the 11th of September, the video to the song ‘Celebrate’ was
released online and the tag ‘GOSPEL ON DEBEAT ft BURNA
BOY’….few hours later the video had been taken down from
youtube due to unknown reason.
HipHopWorld Online put a call to Gospel who immediately turned
off his phone after hearing the ‘What happened with you and
Burna Boy video’ question put to him. More calls to him proved
futile as his phone had been switched off. Our correspondent
later got an anonymous call from a member of Gospel’s team
who narrated and explained the situation and why the video had
been taken down.
“The video was taken down by Burna Boy’s management…” he
said…“…They said Gospel breached a contract..”
According to him, Gospel is currently compiling materials for his
producer album and a while back had met with Burna Boy while
the latter was in Abuja and the song was recorded. It was from
the release of the audio that it seemed like something was up as
the tag had been changed to be in Burna Boy’s
name….regardless, both parties were on good terms.
A few months later when Burna Boy and his manager were in
Abuja, Gospel approached them that he wanted to shoot a video
to the song to be shot by Patrick Elis. But on the day of the
shoot, Burna Boy’s lawyer called Gospel telling him to refrain
from shooting the video for reason undisclosed….having his own
team call back and forth, they reached agreement which was
signed. Unknown to Gospel there is a clause that has him
handover the song to Burna boy but claim rights to the
productions and proceeds, upon release of the video with the
‘GOSPEL ft BURNA BOY’ tag…the clause was immediately
activated.
He also went on to state that all was settled now. ”…But they
have settled it now, it’s no big deal…It’s just a lesson to the
team.” On royalties, he also added, ”They have agreed that the
proceeds from ringback tones/online sales will go to both parties
plus other things I can’t tell you right now…the new video will be
out in a bit”
A call placed to Burna Boy’s management team picked up by
Koch AR was met with a “No comment”.
Well, good thing they have settled as this could have gone
messier.
Culled From HipHopWorldMagazine
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