Famous Ghanaian musician Michael Elliot Darko aka Obrafour has filed a lawsuit against Canadian rapper Drake for using his song without permission.
The song “Calling My Name” from Drake’s 2022 album “Honestly, Nevermind” uses a sample from the Obrafour remix of “Oye Ohene” from 2003.
The Ghanaian musician accuses Drake of violating his copyright when he sampled his song without first obtaining his consent and filed a lawsuit against him in a New York court.
In accordance with the court papers, “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”.
The “Hotline Bling” hitmaker and other defendants in the complaint, according to Obrafour, have benefited significantly financially from the song’s sales since its initial release.
As a result, the Ghanaian musician is asking for $10,000,000 (ten million dollars) in damages, among other things.
“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.”
