One of the greatest indicators that we are still immature as an industry is our constant battles with sampling, interpolation and clearing records. Every other day, we see artists come to social media to talk about sampling and the battles they face in clearing records, and fans confidently say things they do not know about sampling, interpolation, record deals and industry problems.
To directly lift off a part of a record and put it in a new record without changing anything in it is what is called sampling, (copy and paste) and to either sing that record by yourself or change it in any form before putting it on your new record is interpolation. The two are often mistaken for each other and it looks like it’s going to be so for a long time. What majority of our artists in Nigeria do is interpolation.
A good example of sampling would be what Ayra Starr did on her record ‘Sability’ where she sampled Awolo Logomba’s 1998 hit song titled Coupé Bibamba. Good examples of Interpolation could be found when Tems interpolated Seyi Sodimu’s ‘Love me jeje’ on her record with the same title, or Young Jonn interpolating 2Baba’s Ole on his ‘Pot Of Gold’ record.
To release these types of songs, it is compulsory to get the permission of the original composers before you can put the song out for the general public. This process is referred to as the clearance process. It is a legal action that must be taken to prevent copyright infringement issues.
Clearances are necessary because they prevent unnecessary legal issues and lawsuits, while ensuring the original composer is properly compensated for his intellectual property. Unfortunately for Afrobeats, we seem to have a strong hate for entertainment lawyers and the right process, which is why we always have a lot of issues surrounding bad contracts, unfulfilled agreements and clearance issues.
Darkoo came out a few days ago to present her case before the court of public opinion. She recently released a song titled Focus On Me where she interpolated PSquare’s Do Me. The video of the song also went viral on social media because she decided to shoot the video of her record in a very similar way to how PSquare shot theirs back in the day. This received positive comments from the general public as it looked like Afrobeats was finally tapping into the part where we explore our rich history.
It came as a surprise to many when Darkoo took to Twitter to call out Peter of PSquare for sabotaging her song and taking her video off YouTube. She said “ I WASN’T GOING TO SAY ANYTHING, BUT MY MUSIC VIDEO WAS TAKEN DOWN FOR 6 DAYS BY PETER OF P-SQUARE IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMPLETELY SABOTAGE THE SONG. (FORTUNATELY THE VIDEO IS BACK UP NOW.) youtu.be/4wj0nHZ_6t0?si…LET ME BE CLEAR: I HAD ALL THE NECESSARY CLEARANCE FOR THE SAMPLE. THIS IS NOT MY FIRST RODEO USING A SAMPLE, AS YOU KNOW, AND I DID EVERYTHING BY THE BOOK.”
She also said that Peter told her to refrain from speaking with Paul and Jude Okoye, and just run everything through him. He wanted to be featured on the original record and Darkoo wanted him to be on the remix. He then sabotaged the song and took it off YouTube, and tried to frustrate all her efforts towards the song. She also said Paul and Jude were very helpful in resolving issues and getting things done properly.
This sparked a conversation on social media, with many sharing their thoughts on the situation and more labeling Peter as the bad person. Some industry OGs even came out to say that he’s been the problem of PSquare for a while and has done a lot to sabotage the group that the public do not know about.
While this isn’t necessarily a case of greed, it’s easy to see why people think it is. Even with compensation for sampling, Peter wanted to be on the main song, and not the remix. He wanted that initial buzz that a Darkoo and Mr P record would create, especially with PSquare sampled on the record. He however chose the worst possible way to go about it. He could have easily denied the clearance if his terms weren’t met, and the record wouldn’t exist in the first place.
He could have had his team create a contract that would guarantee a remix if he agreed to clear the song, if he felt like Darkoo was trying to use the possibility of a remix to get the song cleared and then disappear on her word after it dropped. He could have started social media conversations with influencers and generated a buzz that would pressure her to drop a remix. He was just a stubborn person who chose war immediately he didn’t have his way, which is very understandable.
In this case, the main issue wasn’t that clearances weren’t done properly, and that makes me happy. We’re finally doing things properly as a genre. We are following due process to get desired results. The issue now seems to be the OGs. They want more, for whatever reason. We saw a similar case with Blaqbonez where he had to take down his ‘Loyalty’ record off his ‘Young Preacher’ album. He claimed the OG sampled (Paul Play Dairo) was making things difficult for the record and ultimately decided that it be taken down.
For our rich culture to be preserved and monetized, our OGs have to do better. They probably feel like the money in Afrobeats is more than it is, and they didn’t have that opportunity during their time, so they reject 50% of proceeds from records. Whether or not the money is what they think it is, they also need to think about the culture the way they think about their pockets. Except of course, who gives a fuck about the culture?
