Drake, a celebrated Canadian rapper, has been sued by Ghanaian Hip Hop legend Michael Elliot Darko aka Obrafour for unauthorized sampling of his song.
Drake’s 2022 album “Honestly, Nevermind” featured the track “Calling My Name,” which is a sample of the 2003 remix of “Oye Ohene” by Obrafour.
The Ghanaian musician is suing Drake in a New York court, alleging that when Drake sampled his song without getting his permission, he violated his copyright.
The court documents read; “Defendants released the Infringing Work on June 17, 2022, despite the fact that an agent of one or more Defendants had previously contacted Obrafour seeking to obtain Obrafour’s permission for the use of the Copyrighted Work in the Infringing Work.”
“He never granted Defendants permission to use the Copyrighted Work and the Infringing work was released mere days later”.
Obrafour claims that the ‘Hotline Bling’ hitmaker and other defendants in the lawsuit have reaped significant financial rewards from the song’s sales since it was first released.
Obrafour requesting for damages
Therefore, among other things, the Ghanaian musician is requesting damages in the amount of $10,000,000 (Ten Million Dollars).
“To date, over the mere 304 days that have elapsed since the Infringing Work was released, the Infringing Work has already been streamed over 4.1 million times on YouTube, streamed over 47,442,160 times on Spotify, and streamed tens of millions of times on Apple Music.
“In addition to generating enormous sums of global streams and sales across numerous platforms, the Infringing Work has also been exploited by the Defendants via other means, including live performance,” the document added.
He is also seeking an injunction requiring the “defendants and their agents, employees, officers, attorneys, successors, licensees, partners, and assigns, and all persons acting in concert or participation with each or any one of them, to cease directly and indirectly infringing, and causing, enabling, facilitating, encouraging, promoting, inducing, and/or participating in the infringement of any of Obrafour’s rights protected by the Copyright Act.”
