Ghanaian musician Mr. Drew has spoken up on the controversy that met his collaboration with Dancehall artiste Stonebwoy.
It could be recalled that in June 2023, Mr. Drew featured Stonebwoy on a track titled “Eat”. However, reports emerged that the song was reported to Nigerian-American actor and singer Rotimi for alleged copyright infringement as it resembled his song “Love Riddim”, which was released in 2019.
Consequently, Rotimi is known for his role as Darius Morrison on the Starz series Boss, and as Andre Coleman on Power.
He took swift action to have “Eat” removed from all streaming platforms due to copyright violations. In response, Stonebwoy claimed he had no knowledge that the song was a cover of Rotimi’s work.
Also, Stonebwoy disclosed that he had reached out to Rotimi on Instagram, who confirmed it was a cover, and they resolved the issue.
The removal of Mr Drew’s music video from YouTube comes after he recorded over 100,00 views, three days after it was released.
Meanwhile, Twitter users criticized Mr. Drew for wrongfully sampling another person’s song.
Mr. Drew revealed that he made a mistake in assuming that Stonebwoy was aware that the song was a cover. He stated that he should have done better by informing him and apologizing for the negative impact the situation may have had.
“I assumed that he knew, I was the one who made the mistake, I should have informed him and given him more information. Because, the song, when putting it out, we named it as a cover of somebody’s song”, he revealed.
Rotimi is back with a new song, and this one is called “Bestie”. It is the singer’s first single since the release of “Make You Say (Mere Naal Remix)”.
Kaywa denies sabotaging Mr. Drew
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Highly Spiritual Record Label, Kaywa denied claims that he ruined Ghanaian musician, Mr. Drew during the 2017 MTN Hitmaker contest.
He explained that he was in support of Mr. Drew winning the contest but his failure to garner adequate votes led to his loss.
Kaywa expressed his utmost astonishment at the assertions because Mr. Drew did not see his scoresheet to draw the conclusion that he did not give him appreciable marks to help him emerge victorious.
He said he had no malice with Mr. Drew despite his loss in the contest.
“I don’t know if he saw my scoresheet to confirm I sabotaged him”, Kaywa said.
“For me, he [Mr. Drew] should have won, but votes helped Freda [to win the contest]. After the event, I called to encourage him not to give up because on stage he was very good at his craft”.
Kaywa
Kaywa further narrated how he signed Mr. Drew after the MTN Hitmaker contest in 2017 and clarified that he did not pay him any money but rather invested in the artiste, especially his music videos.
“After the MTN Hitmaker in 2017, I was expecting to hear from him but I didn’t. So I decided to call him and start doing something by helping him. I didn’t sign him with money. Every label has a way of doing things.
“As for us [Highly Spiritual Music], whatever money we have, we invest in you and take care of you. That’s why most of our videos are quite expensive to the extent that the money could be used to start a business. We shot very expensive videos for Mr. Drew. So I don’t know where that conversation [Kaywa not signing money] is coming from. We believe success is our product”.
Kaywa
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