Clement Ige, manager of the legendary Nigerian musician King Sunny Ade, has revealed that Davido and Small Doctor did not obtain permission before ripping off lines from some of KSA’s discography.
However, the manager did not state expressly the particular song the artists ripped the offending lines from.
“Till today, Small Doctor didn’t get our permission before and after singing ‘ijó tí m’ojó l’àná, tí wọn n’pariwo, oni nkọ, ola nkọ.’ And many of them are guilty of this.”
“The Davido that used Sunny’s lyrics in his song didn’t even get it right and that’s because he didn’t ask for permission. If he did, we would have corrected him. What is ‘Kuluso ewe, agbagba ewe…?’ The line is actually ‘Seleru agbo, agbara agbo’. I know because I co-wrote the song!”
Ige, who has worked with King Sunny Ade for about forty years, said during a roundtable session at Goldberg’s Ariya Repete that the young generation of artists are yet to get a proper understanding of how the music industry works.
According to a PM News report, Ige stated that many young Nigerian artistes do not give proper to original owners of intellectual property rights.
“Many of them don’t give credit to the original composer of the song they adopt. They just sing it without seeking permission. That’s a copyright infringement. It’s not done in developed societies.”