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In a recent interview on the Afrobeats Podcast, Paul Play spoke on the issues he has confronted with Nigeria's lack of proper intellectual property law.
On why some of his music is not available on streaming platforms, Paul Play said the nature of the agreement he had with the label has made it impossible for him to put the songs up.
He went on to share that since leaving Kennis Music, he hasn't received any royalties. While he didn’t give details on the issues, he shared that some parties are reluctant to come to the conversation table and address the issues.
In the interview, the RnB singer and music producer explained that he has had issues of artists sampling his music without getting permission.
Paul Play revisited how he sued MTN after the company used his music in an advert without his permission.
“I received a lot of insults when I sued MTN. I was accused of being broke and not wanting the younger generation to grow,” he said on the attacks he suffered over the lawsuit.
Paul Play shared that years later after his dispute with MTN, Nigeria’s intellectual property law is still grossly underdeveloped.
He mentioned that his songs ‘Forever’, ‘Angel of My Life’, and ‘Mosorire’ have been sampled multiple times even without his permission.
While Paul Play declined to mention names, his song was sampled by Blaqbonez on ‘Loyalty’ off his album ‘Young Preacher’ which was later taken down from streaming platforms over copyright infringements. More recently, his song ‘Mosorire’ was interpolated by Olamide on the track ‘Morowore’ off his latest project ‘Ikigai’.
You can watch Paul Play's full interview on The Afrobeats Podcast below.