Ghanaian music sensation Kuami Eugene is calling time on what he describes as a growing trend of exploitation in the industry, where artistes benefit from his songwriting without giving due credit or compensation. Despite being the creative force behind several popular tracks, he says recognition has too often been absent.
In an interview with 3FM, the award-winning singer and producer recalled instances where he trusted collaborators to “do the needful,” only to be sidelined once the songs became hits.
“Some songs that I wrote that we thought, you know what, they’ll do the needful later and it was in my face afterwards. Like so many songs that if I say I’ll make mention of, you would be like, okay, so they didn’t give you a cut for this. And if I have to take all of them on, it would look like he’s a bad one,” he explained.
Kuami Eugene noted that while he initially brushed off these experiences, he eventually had to address some of them head-on. He pointed to Mr Drew as one artiste he directly confronted about failing to acknowledge his contribution.
“Some of them, I took them on. Like Mr. Drew, I took him on and some of them, I figured, you know, just let it go. So, with all these ones or twos, I have, okay, now it’s no more fun game with all of us. Let’s work. If you look at this, of course, this is the hook. What is my cut? Put it here, put it here, my lawyer will give you a call,” he said, signaling a more assertive stance on protecting his work.
Despite past frustrations, Kuami Eugene remains optimistic about the future of the music scene. He praised the next generation of artistes for their stronger understanding of intellectual property and professionalism.
“So, I love the fact that this new generation of, I mean, new artistes understand this thing to the brim,” he averred.
Below is a video of his statement.
