Jah Prayzah Accused of Reproducing The ZCC Mbungo Song Mhandu In His Beat & Vocals For Eriya
Musical artist Jah Prayzah is alleged to have illegally used the ZCC Mbungo song Mhandu for his beat and rhythm in his recently released tenth album Hokoyo for the song Eriya.
The song Eriya starts with a drumbeat that sounds like that of the ZCC Mbungo song Mhandu. The song drum introduction for Eriya for the first 10 seconds, sounds like Mhandu from 27 seconds to about 37 seconds into the song.
The Eriya’s most loved beat is allegedly copied from the vocals ‘Chenjera’ from the 26th second of the song Mhandu. Listeners commented you can literally sing along “Chengera musikana, chenjera amai, chenjera mukomana, chenjera baba.”
It is not yet known if Jah Prayzah sort the permission of the ZCC band before going ahead to claim the song as his own creation.
Jah Prayzah seems to have admitted to sampling the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) beat towards the end of the song on 4:08 when he sang, ‘Zion’.
If an artist wants to use a sample from someone’s song, an artist must acquire legal permission from the copyright holder, a potentially lengthy and complex process known as clearance. Sampling without permission breaches the copyright of the original sound recording, of the composition and lyrics, and of the performances, such as a rhythm or guitar riff. The moral rights of the original artist may also be breached if they are not credited or object to the sampling. In some cases, sampling is protected under American fair use laws, which grant “limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the rights holder.
It is up to the ZCC Mbungo stars to proceed with legal action if they feel Jah Prayzah has breached their copyright
According to The Herald, Jah Prayzah admitted that he copied the beat of his song “Mwanasikana” on the album “Tsviriyo” from Ghanaian musician Emmanuel Samini’s 2007 hit track titled “Samin
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