Sarkodie vrs. Okraku Mantey sampling saga: Experts share thought

Early this week, Music Producer Mark Okraku-Mantey threatened to sue rapper Sarkodie for sampling Daasebre Dyamena’s song Kokooko which he produced without his permission.

On December 25 last year during his RapperHolic concert at the Accra International Conference Center, the rapper debuted a tribute song to the late musician featuring Akwaboah. Days later, he released the song on Youtube and SoundCloud.

Okraku-Mantey didn’t take kindly the tribute been done without his permission and threaten to sue. Sarkodie and his team haven’t officially responded to the threat.

On Thursday evening on South African radio station KAYA FM, host of Life With Kojo Baffoe, Kojo Baffoe was joined by music producers Amu & Mpho. The guests shared their knowledge of whether sampling is legal, how to get a sample cleared and a lot more.



Read our earlier reports about the issue below.

Music Producer Mark Okraku Mantey has explained the reasons behind his threat to sue rapper Sarkodie for sampling Daasebre Dyamena’s song Kokooko which he produced.

Okraku-Mantey says he wants to seek redress in court to get the right thing done and not as a result of jealousy as some people believe.

“Under normal circumstance if he had called me to say that he is doing Kokooko remake as a tribute to Daasebre, I would have just said ‘go ahead’. I want to hear it sound good or even better. The most important part of this whole thing is how it sounds funny. I didn’t hear anything from him only to see Jon Germain send me a link and when I opened it, I heard my song playing so after hearing my song play, I said at least show me some respect,” said Okraku-Mantey when he appeared as a panellist on Pundits on GhOneTV Tuesday evening.

“I am the sampling master in this country so we know how this game plays. I know when the person does not have access to me or I don’t have access to the person, it is a different ball game but when the person is just next door, you know the person can chase you so we shouldn’t take this case for granted.”

The Slip Music owner adds the response from Sarkodie and his team will decide whether he will head to the court for a decision to be taken.

“I want to see the steps he will make. If he doesn’t make any steps then it gives me a clue that he doesn’t want to respect the industry then we will use him to set example for the younger ones to learn from it. All these court cases are precedents so if we set one for others to learn from it, there is nothing wrong.”