Drake Faces $10M Lawsuit from Ghanaian Rapper Obrafour
Canadian rapper Drake is facing a $10 million lawsuit from a Ghanaian rapper who alleges that Drake sampled one of his songs in the 2022 track “Calling My Name” without obtaining permission.
Drake, 36, is named in a lawsuit by artist Obrafour, whose real name is Michael Darko. Obrafour’s lawyer claims that Drake used an unpermitted sample from his client’s 2003 single, “Ohene remix.”
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Obrafour’s legal representative Imran H. Ansari stated that “It’s such a blatant rip and sample from our client’s song.” Furthermore, the lawyer mentioned having emails from the woman responsible for clearing rights for Drake, reaching out to their client via email without waiting for his permission.
“Then Drake dropped the sort of secret album, if you will, without getting the right clearances owned by my client,” Ansari added.
Elements of Obrafour’s single are said to be featured in the popular track from Drake’s dance album Honestly, Nevermind, which had a surprise release on June 17, 2022.
In the new lawsuit, it is claimed that a member of Drake’s team sent an email seeking clearance for the sample in the week before the album’s release. However, Obrafour had not granted permission by the time of release, and his attorney stated that the musician had been ‘surprised’ to see his work featured without permission.
Regarding the lawsuit, Ansari argued, “Quite frankly, it’s insulting to an artist who is a musician of some popularity, especially in their home country, who takes pride in the creative work that they have put together, only to find out that it’s just disregarded in the sense that Drake samples from his work without permission.”
The lawsuit states that “The copying of the Sampled Phrase in the Infringing Work is so direct in nature that the audio of the Sampled Phrase heard in the Infringing Work contains little or no audible manipulation, processing, or other alteration to its original character as heard in the Copyrighted Work.”
Obrafour is seeking at least $10 million in compensation, citing ‘all profits and damages in the following categories attributable to the infringement’ including album sales, downloads, sponsorships, digital revenue, and concerts that Drake performed following the release of the song.
Ansari clarified that filing the lawsuit was to send a message that their client recognizes the popularity of Drake’s album and his international status as a recording artist. “It is sending the message our client is gonna keep it, obviously he feels he deserves For the loss of revenue that he should be credited with and deserve… My client and myself are willing to go to trial if need be,” Ansari stated.
The lawsuit comes one day after Universal Music Group forced an AI-generated song featuring the simulated voices of Drake and The Weeknd to be pulled from streaming services for ‘infringing content created with generative AI.’
The track went viral over the weekend and by the time it was removed on Monday afternoon, it had been streamed 600,000 times on Spotify and received 15m views on TikTok views and 275,000 on YouTube.
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