Silence is not always golden Hey! Who are your friends and what are you willing to do for them just to remain that!? It happens that I got super-hot story; if you''d like some then this will really awaken the spirits within you. It turns out that a certain local artist, let us call him Nahas for the purpose of this column was approached by his musician friend to write a chorus for one of his songs. Nahas being a music lover and cool friend did just that. The chorus added so much meaning and life to the whole song that the artist friend apparentlydecided to include the song on the album he was busy working on. Nahas says the artist told him to just ''hold on'' as he would be notified when studio and recording time came. Months passed with no word for Nahas from his friend regarding the song until he actually just gave up, ndje.
As it turns out, it was quite shocking for Nahas, to one day, as he was sitting chilling in a bar to in fact hear the song that he and his friend had played around with not so long ago. Poor Nahas nearly fell of his chair when he heard his friend literally sing his part, his words… everything his except for the voice! Yooh banthong, what is going on here? As if that''s not worst of it, the artist friend did not give Nahas any credit whatsoever; he wasn''t mentioned on the cover nor was he accredited for the part he wrote.
Clearly, he was quite upset about the whole situation though but according to “credible sources” and the grapevine, but really does not want to talk about it or do anything regarding the situation. Normally, what the artist friend did is punishable by law hence it is regarded as a crime. Intellectual property infringement is when any original creation with rights is stolen. This includes pieces of art, music or creative writing. So Mr. Artist sir, people don''t go claiming that something is theirs when it''s as evident as it is in this case!
But Nahas being a good friend and since entertainment circles are also small, you can''t just go snitching on those around you, you will be cast out of social gatherings and all that. One would rather maar net sit and swallow the ndungu when your chorus is being sung by people in Warehouse and everybody thinking how great this artist is, anakam its you.
Moral of the story, there is absolutely nothing that can justify wrong actions, regardless of relationship you have. How many entertainers are being screwed over like this? Next time I will actually use real names so your fans know what type of person you are!
June Shimuoshili