Veteran sound engineer, Appiah Dankwa widely known as Appietus has said he never stole the popular ‘Muje Baya’ beats which featured defunct music duo, 5five.
According to him, what he did was to sample the beat and remake it.
‘Muje Baya’ was one of the biggest songs in Ghana in 2011 but it took a different twist when the brain behind the song was accused of stealing the beats of the song from South African DJ Cyndo’s 2009 hit song Amerido.
In a conversation with MzGee on ‘The Gist’, the ace music producer explained that the copyright laws allows for beats to be sampled by four bars which he did.
” The World Copy rights law allows 4 bars so I can take four bar of what you did but I have to give you credit. When I exceed the 4 bar, then I probably have to talk to the person because I’m taking the whole song.” he explained
He added that, “The credit comes when you do an album cover or art work of the song where you write originally by Fela Kuti and Daddy Lumba. So any technical person who sees it knows you took only 4 bars.”
The music producer who has made over 200 hit songs added that artistes these days barely pay sound engineers because they are usually offered free beats by new engineers who are desperate to penetrate the industry.
