Spokesperson for Mantse Aryeequaye, Anny Kareem-Abdi Osabutey has said Obrafour and Hammer did not avail themselves for an amicable solution to the ongoing copyright impasse.
Speaking on TV3’s New Day on Friday, Anny said both Hammer and Obrafour left Mantse with no option than to seek a legal redress because the defendants were unwilling to settle the copyright issue.
He noted that even after the legal suit had been filed, Hammer and Obrafour were unavailable to be served the court documents until the legal team opted for a substituted service to allow him serve Hammer and Obrafour.
“Mantse has been forced by the other parties to get to this far… Mantse had no option than to get to this point.
“When this particular issue came out, we had to go back to the court to issue a substituted service because bailiffs could not identify where they are. Left to Mantse alone, this issue would have been thrashed amicably nobody will hear about that,” he noted.
Anny explained further that before the issue about legal action came up, peaceful talks and conversations were held to resolve the matter but the other parties were reluctant.
“From Day one when this matter came up, Mantse reached out to them. They’ve had a lot of conversations, there have been back and forth…meetings will be set up and either somebody will not show up for reasons unknown to him. So at the end of the day, he said this back and forth will not help so he was forced to seek legal redress,” Anny told Berla Mundi.
The Killer Cut controversy
The ‘Killer Cut’ Phrase used in the popular ‘Oye Ohene’ song by Obrafour in 2003 raised controversies after American rapper Drake used the phrase in his ‘Honestly Nevermind’ song without permission.
Drake sampled the phrase in his song ‘Calling My Name’ without consent from the original owners.
Obrafour subsequently sued Drake in a New York court and demanded $10 million for sampling the phrase without his consent.
He insisted that Drake and his team made a lot of money for sampling his ‘Killer Cut’ phrase without his consent.
However, Mantse upon hearing about Obrafour’s demands from Drake tweeted at Drake and said he is the original owner of the phrase ‘Killer Cut’ and never gave up his rights to Obrafour or Hammer.
This caused Mantse to sue Hammer and Obrafour who claimed he discovered that Obrafuor and Hammer had registered the song together with the phrase in their name.