Orbeat, well-known for being the producer behind hits such as Timaya’s ‘Sanko’, and Solidstar’s ‘My body’, made headlines when he produced Burna Boy’s smash hit song ‘Soke’, as well as two other songs on his sophomore album “On A Spaceship.”
The two have recently been involved in a war of words on social media, over the release of a song ‘Acting Bad’. Burna Boy claims the song was leaked, but that has not gone down well with Orbeat, who owns the beats of the song, an unfinished project he repossessed from Burna Boy’s camp.
Pulse Nigeria had an interview with Orbeat, who shared his story with us. That conversation has been transcribed, and you can read it below.
How It All Started
“Most of the time I create in my own space, and I reach out to artiste. If I feel that this is something that is good for the artiste. I create, envision and approach artistes when I think I have sounds that suit them or think that that is what they should be doing. That's how I did Sanko with Timaya, did the collaboration with Solidstar. At some point I just felt I needed a break from Dancehall, so I made the 'Soke' sound. Runtown was the one that even recommended Burna Boy, saying that this suits Burna more. He was like: "This particular song I am hearing, it's a hit for Burna.”
I went on Twitter, looked for his booking, but I didn't get any, so I made some calls. I grew up in Port Harcourt, I was supposed to know Burna from Port Harcourt, but we didn't really do much in Port Harcourt. I met him a couple of times, but we were not friends. So I called Kalada (His former manager), he called me over, I told him I had stuff for Burna, and played a couple of stuff. Burna recorded about 6 songs with me, recorded a lot of music before he put out Soke. Then we now started talking about the album. We discussed a lot of things, like the business side, which apparently when Kalada left the team, a lot of things changed. At some point, his mum came in, and a lot of things changed in the management. His manager Kalada actually quit. There was too much conflict of interests. There were managerial differences. Out of six songs, he paid me for just two songs on the album first. When he put out Soke, I was like 'Guy, you guys are already putting out my materials, I should be paid for this. So they paid me for two out of six, saying that before they dropped the album, they would drop the rest. Even before I was even paid for Soke, it took...when he was owing his team and owing me for my work, 'Soke' was out there. His team weren't even paid when he bought two cars. We took like Gs, and understood that he had to do these things. We let that one slide.
He said when he is compiling the album, they would know how many of my songs would make the album. When they compiled, just two more made it, making it three songs. Those were very good songs. The song that just leaked was one of the songs that didn't make the album. Kalada didn't want to put everything on the album. He thought it wise to just cover charges for everything that I have produced, because everything was worth keeping for the next project. But after the album dropped, Kalada, left and everything changed. First they refused to pay me my balance for the album, the Mum changed everything, and said whatever agreement I had with Kalada was irrelevant, that she's boss...
I am not the kind of person to hold on to the past, there's money to be made, I can't just pause my life and be chasing a debt when I can make more. So I had to let it go. We had an agreement based on royalties, and digital sales, which she said it was invalid because she wasn't part of it. There was something written. But anyway, I tossed everything away. I had an idea of what they made from sales, but I moved on. Issues With New Song ‘Acting Bad’
For the remaining three songs that didn't make the album, I sent them mails to repossess my beats since they weren't paying for the songs. I have a business I'm running, people need these beats. I sen a mail to the label, to his management email. The day we recorded that song, I sent it to Burna in 'Acting Bad'. Most of the things I did, I didn't for Burna, I did it for Kalada, who was my personal friend. To be honest, I don't have Burna's number, I speak to only Kalada. During the time when they were owing me, I called, he hung up the phone and never picked my calls again. People blame me going on Twitter, but what do you really expect me to do when I call, and you hang up and you never pick my call again. The first time Burna Boy ever won an award outside this country, Soke gave him that award. I saw him ranting an tweeting that I begged to work with him. When I worked with Burna Boy, I had the hottest song in the country. 'Sanko' was number 1 when I worked with him.
When they failed to cover the charge for the other songs, I sent a mail that I am repossessing my beat. I was in my house, and my firend called me, and he said he thought he heard a song that sound like my beat. I had used that beat to refix Timaya's Sanko, to buy the songs more life, at my free time. I used the beat for that instead. It's out there. All of a sudden I hea5rd that 'Acting bad'was out. I went out, I saw it on platforms I saw it as a leak. I went to his social media handles and there was post, and I said ók' it was a leak. But I came back some days later, and I saw pictures from Spacehsip logo and a white background. If it was a leak, nobody would knwo that I produced it, my signature was not on that beat. That photo had my name on it, and nobody knew that I had produced that beat. I don't know why I didn't munch it, but it disappeared immediately. Nobody knew I produced that beat. If it was a leak, they wouldn't have known that I produced it. You can't tell me you leaked a song, the song came out, and you had plans for the song. It was incomplete, no third verse, and you gout there and promote the song. What you should be doing is putting out a disclaimer saying that, ‘No, take this thing down, I am not even done with this project”. He went ahead to promote the song, and giving Kudos to Saeon for what she did with the song. The third verse was open, I didn’t complete the song, anybody could download and put their verse on it. I saw him promoting the Saeon version, that means he is endorsing the song. It is no longer a leak when you start endorsing the song.
What pissed me off was the hypocrisy. When he came and started typing that the song was produced by the genius behind ‘Soke’, thinking that that will make me feel not cheated. What he did was criminal. There was a mail to that effect stating that I had repossessed the beat. What he should be saying is to put out a statement stating that it was leaked and to control the content from spreading, rather, he endorsed it, and thinking that by tweeting changes anything. That’s when I told him that this is illegal, that I already have material out with that same beat.
The Debt & Insults
Apparently the debt thing came in when I tweeted about it. He wasn’t tweeting back at me, he was insulting me. I and Burna we are not mates, I didn’t want to engage him. All I did was state facts, and posted the mail on twitter. I din’t even find the mail early, if I did, wouldn’t have contacted him. I would have taken legal action. He called me a thief and a crackhead. Look at the both of us, who is the crackhead? I wonder if he was on crack when he was typing.
His people reached out to me, and I told her what I wanted. I have this material out already. If they wanted it, they would have done what his former manager suggested for them to buy the materials, which they failed to do. I moved on. I have stuff I am pushing too, and I have not maximized it, therefore it is going to clash. The authenticity of the ownership of the intellectual property will come up. I don’t want that.
First I had let debt slide. They are still owing me from the album, and his mum knows about it. All I just want is for him to respect my work and my intellectual property, and take down that song. The money he is owing me, and what we discussed on royalties that he has breached, I have moved on. I know he is in the habit of screwing people over. Everybody that has ever worked with Burna as a producer or management has issues with Burna. And I am not surprised that it is happening. I expected it from him.
It’s an infringement on my IP, and I have material with the same beat. I just want him to take it out and issue a statement about it. It is being monetized. I told his PR team, and gave them 48 hours to take it down before I take legal action. All I just need is for him to take that song down and admit that what he did was wrong and theft. It is a crime, IP theft, and he could go to jail for this. I have evidence that it is my IP, it is my beat, I sent you a mail not to release it, and you released it. I could decline settlement and insist that he should serve the time. They have tried to throw money at me, but that is not what I want. All I just want him to do is to take down is cool.