ZIMDANCEHALL artiste Tariro Kadandara — popularly known as Queen Kadjah in music circles — has attributed her incorporation of lyrics from Jah Prayzah’s Soja Rinosvika Kure into her single, Muchandiripa, to ignorance of copyright law.
BY PRECIOUS CHIDA
The song, which was released early this month, has been making waves on Star FM.
Queen Kadjah’s manager, Victor Dambo, said they did not intend for the song to be played on radio.
“We had no intention to send the song to the radio, it was only meant for the streets, but I am now realising that we really did overlook the Copyright (and Neighbouring Rights) Act,” Dambo said.
“We looked into a number of successful Zimbabwean artistes to see how best we can come up with positive lyrics. In the process we came across that song and she got the inspiration to do it since it relates to us in the Zimdancehall genre which also came up because Jah Prayzah is an inspiration to her as she follows his music a lot.”
Jah Prayzah — who has on several occasions been accused of plagiarising material from other musicians’ works — said although he was not in favour of people illegally using his intellectual property, he was not going to take any legal action.
“I am not at all okay with people who make use of my content without my consent. However, I am not going to take any legal action because I love and respect Zimbabwean artistes,” he said.
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“This is, however, the same respect that we should give each other as artistes and our works. It is not really that hard to ask for permission as a way of showing respect to a fellow musician.”
Dambo, however, said they were now making efforts to iron out the problem with Jah Prayzah’s management.
