Small Doctor, Davido, Allegedly Accused of Copyright Infringements

Small Doctor, Davido, Allegedly Accused of Copyright Infringements

Popular Nigerian singers Davido and Small Doctor have been accused of copyright infringements.

The duo were called out for using lyrics from veteran Juju musician King Sunny Ade’s songs without seeking for the permission to do so.

King Sunny Ade’s manger, Mr Clement Ige expressed his dissatisfaction towards the action of the singers using lyrics from KSA’s songs in their hit songs and not even giving credit to the original owner of the lyrics.

Speaking at Goldberg’s Ariya Repete Roundtable discourse in Abeokuta, the manager revealed that young generation singers are not doing things the right way. According to him, their songs lyrics are filled with jargon that make no literal sense.

He even indirectly mentioned popular rapper Olamide for using a catchy phrase in the wrong manner.

He said;

“They use English language to speak Yoruba. Like the young man who sang ‘makole marale.’ How do you build house before buying a land?” he asked. 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.

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!”

It is widely believed that Davido doesn’t write most of his songs. He either buys them from external song writers or have them written by members of his crew. He reportedly bought one of his hit songs ‘Gbagbe Oshi’ from General Pype for N1million.