Music artist, Okafor Uchenna Victor, popularly known as Mr Real, has expressed concern over what he described as high level of intellectual property theft in Nigerian music industry.
The ‘Legbegbe’ crooner claimed that Afrobeats as a genre lacks originality, stressing that a lot of songs and ideas on its scene were stolen.
He noted that upcoming artists are the most affected but often don’t get justice because they don’t have much supporters to create awareness about the injustice.
He claimed that even veteran artists like Blackface who is always vocal about song theft have used other artists’ intellectual properties in the past without approval.
Speaking in a recent interview with Hip TV, Mr Real also dived into the allegations that Rema stole his colleague Omah Lay’s intellectual property, saying it could be possible due to the nature of the music industry.
“Blackface dey always complain say dem steal him song. Afrobeats no get original songs, even Rema fit steal Omah Lay song. You see idea wey bad if you no sharp, omo boys go run am. No time.
“Stealing of songs happens more between upcoming artists & top artistes but the upcoming no get fans to speak for them. There’s no original song in Afrobeats. Even the one shouting ‘they stole my song’ don still copy person own,” he said in Pidgin.
