Kenyan Boy band Le Band has been forced to issue an apology after a song writer called them out over coryright infringement.
The band made up of Charisma, Bassman and Chokoraa Mjanja recently re-united to drop their Za Kale song.
Following a recent interview on Teen Republik a song writer known as Beck came out to claim rights to the song.
The band had said in the interview that ‘Za kale’ is a celebration of love especially after loss.
Beck however came out to reveal she wrote the song 8 years back when she lost her boyfriend. She added that the band did not inform her when they released the song two months back and they also did not pay for the rights.
“The true story they were referencing is my boyfriend’s passing 8 years ago. I wasn’t informed about their decision to release it then, nor have I been paid for writing it,” she said
Following the Beck’s allegations, the Band issued an apology saying that there was a communication oversight on their part.
“We are deeply sorry about this. We believe in compensation and crediting of creatives and we regret this.
“There was a communication breakdown in terms of ownership on our end and we take full responsibility and would like to talk about your compensation,” the band wrote on social media
Le Band’s lead singer Captain Charisma also issued a separate apology on social media saying that such will not happen again.
He added that the song was written by band member Joel alias Chokoraa Mjanja and Becky and he had no information on their communication.
“As a group, we take full responsibility as a collective in spite of what led to this that is myself @Chokora_mjanja and @manwithbass254 and we want to promise our fans that this shall not be an occurrence again both in our group works and solo careers. Thank you and have a great day. I have been vocal in different settings about issues of compensation and contracts as I know their importance especially having studied this.
“I’m big on crediting and compensation and hence would never knowingly take from a creative. There’s been an incident where one of my bandmates from @leband254 wrote a song with @mapenzibaby and she called us out for not having compensated her. Unfortunately, I was not privy to a lot of the info I later found out but we have been able to resolve this issue amicably” he added
Joel also issued an apology to the song writer through his personal account acknowledging that he made a mistake.
“I made a mistake of not involving you in the project that was very dear to both you and us, more so since I was the one in contact with you. I hope you keep writing your best music aki… I am sorry… @mapenzibaby, pole sana for the way this turned out to be.
“You deserve better than all that has happened and I’ll do all in power to see this does not happen to you or anyone else in the industry.” He said
