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An Accra High Court has thrown out a copyright ownership case, brought before it by founder of the Chalewote Street Art Festival Mantse Aryeequaye, who sued rapper Obrafour and music producer Hammer for allegedly claiming sole ownership of the famous ‘killer Cut Blood’ phrase in the popular ‘Oye Ohene’ song.
Obrafour and Hammer of The Last Two Music Group, the producer of ‘Oye Ohene’ have been awarded GH¢10,000, GhanaWeb has learned, following a court sitting on Thursday, February 15, 2024.
According to information available to GhanaWeb, the decision of the court to dismiss the case was based on what it termed as “inconsistencies and breach of court rules” in Mantse’s writ.
The ‘Killer Cut Blood’ controversy
The phrase, ‘Killer Cut’, used in the popular ‘Oye Ohene’ track, became the topic of discussion after Obrafour sued American rapper, Drake for adopting it in his “Honestly Nevermind” track without permission.
Drake sampled the phrase ‘Killer Cut Blood’ from Obrafour’s ‘Oye Ohene remix’, which came out in 2003, in his song ‘Calling My Name’.
Obrafour afterwards sued Drake for $10 million in a New York court, claiming that the American rapper did not have his consent to use the phrase.
Obrafour insisted that Drake and others who worked on the song made a lot of money from stealing his intellectual property, hence his decision to take action.
However, Mantse who felt cheated and unacknowledged, tweeted at Drake, saying that he is the original owner of the phrase ‘Killer Cut Blood’ and that he did not give up his rights to Obrafour or Hammer, the producer of the remix.
Mantse’s writ
On January 12, 2024, Mantse sued Obrafour and Hammer. In a writ of summons, Mantse had claimed that Obrafour registered the phrase as his own in the U.S in September 2022, without his permission or any rights transfer.
He stated that until this development, he did not fault Obrafour and Hammer the producer of the ‘Oye Ohene’ song for adopting his popular ‘Killer Cut’ phrase derived from his spoken word piece without consent.
Mantse said he had tried to meet with Obrafour and Hammer severally after a recent development where American rapper, Drake used ‘Killer Cut’ in his song, but to no avail.
According to the Chalewote Festival founder, he took this legal step after he discovered that Obrafour had registered the song together with the ‘Killer Cut’ phrase in the US.
“Plaintiff says 1st Defendant received notification from some handlers of Drake, (a foreign musician), requesting the use of Plaintiffs work which they wrongly attributed to 1st Defendant, because they heard it on his song ‘Oye Ohene’. 1st defendant did not inform Drake’s handlers that the 1st Defendant was not the owner of the work, but who used it on his song, (just as Drake is to use it). 1st Defendant did not inform Plaintiff, the actual owner of the work, knowing very well that the part of the song being sought by Drake is wholly the intellectual property of the Plaintiff,” part of the writ read.
