Rapper Danny Young explains the real reasons he is suing Tiwa Savage and Mavin Records

Earlier this week, the news broke that rapper Danny Young has dragged Tiwa Savage and Mavin Records to court for allegedly infringing the copyright for his song, Oju ti tiwon.

He claims Tiwa Savage’s song, One, was based on his 2009 song.

Following the allegation, YouTube first yanked Tiwaa’s song, One from its website and then reinstated it. We don’t know what went behind the scene.

In his court filing, Danny is seeking N200 million in restitution.

Why the court is yet to rule on the matter, the rapper has opened up to the Punch in a new interview on his motivation and assures the publication his decision to sue was purely for the sake of protecting his intellectual property rights and not greed motivated. He highlights that an artist is entitled to protect and to benefit from his intellectual property rights. He also complained about what he perceived to be Nigerians attitude towards copyright infringement, which he ascribes to ignorance.

His words: “I wish that Nigerians would stop treating this issue of copyright violation with levity. A lot of people don’t understand how this thing works. They don’t even know the value of their copyright. It is no fault of theirs, though. It is because many artistes have been infringing other people’s copyright. Now everybody thinks it is a normal thing to do in Nigeria. Some people even think it is wrong to complain.”

Per the Punch, Danny maintains that neither Tiwa Savage nor Marvin Records has reached out to him to discuss the issues despite his lawyers contacting them.

“I reached out to them through my lawyer. When I found that Tiwa had infringed my copyright, the first thing I did was to make a video in which I expressed my displeasure with what she did. I had to do this because she gave somebody else the credit for my own song. I don’t want to mention the person’s name because I have no business with him.

“All she needed to do was simply reach out to me and apologise for her action because I am the originator of that content. But she didn’t. She ignored me and made it seem as if I was talking nonsense. I felt really bad about it,” he says.

The rapper also seems to feel that Tiwa cannot plead ignorant having been exposed internationally as well as being an intellectual property owner herself.

“The person I have an issue with was educated abroad and she is experienced. I am sure that she understands what it means to violate another person’s copyright. If people like her disobey the copyright law or continue to infringe other people’s copyright, it means that they know what they are doing. It also means that they deliberately do it because this is Nigeria and they expect that nobody will challenge them. But this is wrong.

“We are in a music industry that is growing and we intend to go higher in the future. This cannot be achieved if copyright laws are flagrantly disobeyed. I believe the artistes copyright is the only right that he has. He is also supposed to make money from his copyright, even after he has retired from music.

“So when other people keep abusing his copyright, at the end of the day it means that he has been in music for nothing. It is just like building a house without having a certificate of occupancy. This cannot continue in Nigeria,” he says.