Drake Slammed With Lawsuit By Ghanaian Rapper Over Alleged Unauthorized Song Sample

In the music industry, using samples in songs is very common, especially when you're a big star like Drake. However, Ghanaian rapper Obrafour claimed that Drake used a piece of his music without permission.

Obrafour is suing the rapper for a minimum of $10 million in damages and profits from the song's revenue. His lawyers claim that Drake has never credited or compensated Obrafour for the unauthorized sample.

Drake recently made headlines due to an AI-generated song of him and The Weeknd, which was fresh off a court battle with Vogue magazine over a fake cover.

Read on to find out more.

According to official court papers obtained by Music Business Worldwide (per Insider), Ghanaian rapper Obrafour has sued Drake for copyright infringement. The rapper, whose real name is Michael Elliot Kwabena Okyere Darko, claimed that Drake used a short clip from his song "Oye Ohene" in his track "Calling My Name."

Obrafour is one of the biggest stars in the Ghanaian music scene, and his genre, hip life, combines traditional Ghanaian music and hip-hop. In the complaint, Obrafour claims he communicated with someone from Drake's team concerning the sample. He said someone from Republic Records was trying to clear the piece already in the track.

The person told Obrafour's team they sought his consent to use "both the master and publishing rights." The rapper claims he did receive a subsequent mail on the sample, but communication ended there.

About nine days after Obrafour claims to have received the first email, Drake released the "Honestly, Nevermind" album. The complaint reads, "Obrafour had not yet responded to the June 8, 2022 clearance email or the follow-up June 13, 2022 clearance email at the point when Drake's 'Honestly, Nevermind' album was released."

His lawyers further said, "Nonetheless, the infringing work is one of the songs appearing on the 'Honestly, Nevermind' album, released to the world by 'surprise' on June 17, 2022." The album successfully generated over 250 million streams within its first week of streaming.

The offending song, "Calling My Name," has over 47 million streams on Spotify and more than 4.1 million views on YouTube. The lawsuit also noted that in the 304 days since the song's release, it's been "streamed tens of millions of times on Apple Music."

In his complaint, Obrafour is seeking damages of $10 million minimum and a share of the song's profits. This would include revenue from streaming, record sales, live performances, merchandise, and all other income. The rapper is also seeking compensation for his legal costs for the suit.

His lawyers wrote, "Defendants continue to engage in infringement, despite acknowledging that they needed to secure rights and authorization from Obrafour. Defendants have never accounted to, credited, or otherwise compensated Obrafour for their unauthorized use of the copyrighted work."

The suit names multiple defendants asides from Drake, including writers and producers of "Calling My Name." This includes his record company OVO, Republic Records, Universal Music Group, producer Alex Lustig; DJ Diamante Blackmon, songwriter and producer Johannes Klahr; and musician Beau Nox.

Drake recently made headlines over an AI-generated song featuring his and The Weeknd's voices that went viral. The song "Heart on my sleeve" featured AI-generated vocals of the two musicians and was uploaded on TikTok and YouTube by an anonymous person named Ghostwriter.

A third-party distributor eventually uploaded the AI track to music streaming platforms. It quickly gained thousands of streams on platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, and TIDAL. However, it has since been deleted from these platforms.

Asides from the AI song drama, Drake recently settled a lawsuit with Vogue after he and 21 Savage created a fake magazine cover in promotional videos for their album, "Her Loss." The settlement specifics, like the amount, are still private news, but the company did ask for $4m in its initial lawsuit.