In the early hours of Saturday, a video on the internet emerged and accused Ciara of having lifted lines from Tiwa Savage’s “Belong Nko” verbatim. “Before Nko” was part of Savage’s RED album. The album was released in December 2015.

https://twitter.com/Rouvafe/status/1027972665846444033?s=19

Ciara’s “Freak Me” which featured Tekno took more than a line from “Before Nko”. The rhythm and the chorus all sound oddly similar. The difference in both songs is the voice.

Industry onlookers have described this as “copying a whole song from Tiwa Savage”.

“Freak Me” was released last Friday. It is also interesting that it had Tekno, another singer who has been accused of lifting elements of another person’s song.

Tiwa Savage has a publishing deal with Sony. Ciara is likewise signed to Universal Music Group. The possibility of releasing an uncleared song is almost nonexistent.

In the release notes of “Freak Me” on Amazon, Tiwa Savage and D’Prince had credit for being songwriters on the song. Savage and Omo Oba co-wrote “Before Nko”.

Also, Donjazzy was credited for the sampled composition.  

All the parties involved in “Before Nko” were duly acknowledged in the release notes on Amazon.

Screenshot taken from Amazon as at 13th of August 2018.

In a tweet by Ciara on Friday, she wrote that Tiwa Savage had been the inspiration behind “Freak Me”. She also confirmed that the Mavin singer’s music had been sampled.

“Shout out to Tiwa Savage on the inspiration and sample used in ‘Freak Me’ She’s a beast! I fell in love with the melody when I first heard it in Africa 3 years ago. So good. #AfroWave,”

https://twitter.com/ciara/status/1027996689624264704?s=19

But the curious thing is, neither Tiwa Savage nor her representatives has yet acknowledged the tweet by the US singer.

Why is Tiwa Savage not saying anything about the song? “Before Nko” was not a popular jam off RED. But a few hours after release, “Freak Me” appears to be owning a spot in the playlists of Nigerian music audience.

If Tiwa Savage did not acknowledge the song, there would still be a few murmurs about the status of the song.