The host of Black Pot on 3FM, Blakk Rasta has waded into the controversy around attempts by some Ghanaian creatives to demand copyright compensation from American rapper Drake.
Obrafour filed a $10 million lawsuit in the Southern District of New York in which he is demanding the said amount from Drake over copyright infringement in his 2022 song ‘Calling My Name’ off his ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ album.
However, in a twist of events, the founder of Chalewote Street Arts Festival Mantse Aryeequaye has claimed the very soundbite on the Obrafour song that was used by the Grammy Award-winning rapper.
Reacting to the news on Thursday, April 20, 2023, Blakk Rasta said hiplife as a genre was birthed through the sampling of American songs.
“Hiplife as a genre, how did it even start? Hiplife as a genre started by sampling, heavy sampling. 99% of all the early hiplife songs that come out including the ones that Reggie Rockstone brought to us were all sampled. So American artistes and rappers and some other African songs, today if all those Americans want to come back and say this artist sampled this song from me… Ruth Eye sampled Fresh, which artiste in Ghana doesn’t sample? How many Ghanaian artists have paid for sampling American music?
“Now that Afrobeat music has put Africa on the map, I am so scared that if the Americans want to retaliate, we will have to sell the whole of Ghana and we will never pay the copyright.”
Blakk Rasta however entreated Mantse and Obrafuor to rather find an amicable way to ensure they both benefit from the copyright claim instead of tussling over the opportunity to gain compensation.
Blakk Rasta who is a reggae artist alleged that the two parties had in the past met on the subject but failed to reach an agreement.