Obrafour has a strong case against Drake, says legal practitioner
Ghanaian rapper Obrafour has sued Drake for US$10 million for sampling his 2003 remix of “Oye Ohene” on the song “Calling My Name” from his “Honestly Never mind” album
A private legal practitioner, Amanda Clinton, has said Ghanaian rapper Obrafour has a strong case in suing Drake for US$10 million for sampling his 2003 remix of “Oye Ohene” on the song “Calling My Name” from his “Honestly Never Mind” album.
Speaking to Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday (20 April), Clinton said Drake violated the copyright law.
“I think Obrafour has a very strong case because they’re basically saying the coping of the sampled phrase in the infringed work is so direct in nature that the audio of the sampling phrase heard contains little or no manipulation or alteration in character.”
“So that basically means that it’s the exact words. What makes his case even stronger is that Drake’s team reached out allegedly to Obrafour’s team a week before the album dropped …” Amanda said.
Background
Ghanaian rapper Obrafour has sued Drake for US$10 million for sampling his 2003 remix of “Oye Ohene” on the song “Calling My Name” from his “Honestly Nevermind” album.
Obrafour claimed in court documents in New York that the Canadian rapper violated his copyright when he used a portion of his song without getting his permission and that parties involved in the making of “Calling My Name” have financially benefited from his work.
Recall that on 20 June 2022, the God’s Plan rapper Drake stunned his fans with his ‘Honestly, Never mind‘ and sampled Ghanaian rapper Obrafour’s 2003 remix of ‘Oye Ohene’ on his track 6 titled ‘Calling My Name’.
Obrafour is asking the court to order the parties to, among other things, pay him US$10 million in damages as compensation for his works.
Parts of the statement reads: “Defendants released the Infringing Work on 17 June 2022, despite the fact that an agent of one or more defendants had previously contacted Obrafour seeking to obtain Obrafour’s permission for the use of the copyrighted work in the Infringing Work. Obrafour never granted defendants permission to use the copyrighted work and the Infringing work was released mere days later.
The Pae Mu Ka hitmaker also stated that the respondents in the aforementioned infringement case had accrued enormous benefits, including producing enormous sums of global streams and sales across a variety of platforms, while maintaining that they had also been taken advantage of by the Defendants via other methods, including live performance.
“To date, over the mere 304 days that have elapsed since the Infringing Work was released, the Infringing Work has already been streamed over 4.1 million times on YouTube, streamed over 47,442,160 times on Spotify, and streamed tens of millions of times on Apple Music.”
“In addition to generating enormous sums of global streams and sales across numerous platforms, the Infringing Work has also been exploited by the defendants via other means, including live performance.”
The veteran Ghanaian rapper is also seeking a dictum requiring the “defendants and their agents, employees, officers, attorneys, successors, licensees, partners, and assigns, and all persons acting in concert or participation with each or any one of them, to cease directly and indirectly infringing, and causing, enabling, facilitating, encouraging, promoting, inducing, and/or participating in the infringement of any of Obrafour’s rights protected by the Copyright Act.
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