{"id":2377,"date":"2023-07-14T23:23:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T20:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-153143-3527763.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2023-07-14T23:25:39","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T20:25:39","slug":"kwesta-cheated-royalties-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/kwesta-cheated-royalties-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Kwesta was cheated of his royalties on \u201cSpirit\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>And so a lot of you might know about Kwesta\u2019s leaked split sheets for his hit song \u201c<strong>Spirit<\/strong>\u201d featuring American rapper, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wale_(rapper)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wale<\/a><\/strong>, and that is because they were leaked online last year.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"520\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kwesta.jpg\" alt=\"Kwesta - South African rapper\" class=\"wp-image-2423\" title=\"Kwesta - South African rapper\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kwesta.jpg 520w, https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kwesta-300x173.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kwesta &#8211; South African rapper.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>At the time, what caught the attention of a lot of people was the fact that among the people that were getting royalties for that song included; the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brenda_Fassie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Brenda Fassie<\/a><\/strong> estate, and the South African musical duo, <strong>Spiritchaser<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Brenda Fassie part was not so surprising because her music was sampled in Kwesta\u2019s song, however, Spiritchaser was also getting a cut of the royalties, and it wasn\u2019t just any cut, it was actually the biggest cut coming at around 66.6%, which was way bigger than Kwesta\u2019s portion of just 8.35%, the featured artist Wale got about 12.525% and Brenda Fassie got just about 4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so at the time when the split sheets were leaked online, the assumption was that Kwesta\u2019s producer, Makwa, had sampled Spiritchaser\u2019s 2011 chart-topping hit song \u201cThese Tears\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"475\" src=\"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Makwa.jpg\" alt=\"South African record producer Makwa\" class=\"wp-image-2425\" title=\"South African record producer Makwa\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Makwa.jpg 500w, https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Makwa-300x285.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">South African record producer, Makwa, produced Kwesta\u2019s hit single, Spirit.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Later on during an interview, producer Makwa revealed that he did not sample Spiritchaser\u2019s song and that therefore there was no need for the duo to be given any royalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Spirit\u2019 was a remake because I didn\u2019t use the sample from \u2018<strong>These Tears<\/strong>\u2019 by Spiritchaser, I replayed their piano,\u201d Makwa stated during an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But regardless, Spiritchaser ended up getting the majority of the publishing royalties from \u201cSpirit\u201d, which I think was a very big mistake. The answer itself lies in the fact that Makwa didn\u2019t sample Spiritchaser\u2019s song, but rather made a remake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch \u201cSpirit\u201d by Kwesta featuring Wale below;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kwesta - Spirit (Official Music Video) ft Wale ft. Wale\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wFi-BqmTRrw?feature=oembed&#038;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So you see, remakes are not necessarily legal but in this case, the part that was remade was the \u201cChord Progression\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For your information, \u201cChord Progressions\u201d are not copyrightable because if you do allow people to copyright certain \u201cChord Progressions\u201d, then we are going to run out of \u201cChord Progressions\u201d at some point simply because there is so much music being made all over the world on a daily basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in some cases, the legal position of \u201cChord Progressions\u201d is not as clear and depends on judges who a lot of times don\u2019t even know anything about music. Melodies can be copyrighted and some can arise from \u201cChord Progressions\u201d, if the Chord Progression is a distinctive element of the work, then it can be regarded as copyrightable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the case of Kwesta\u2019s song Spirit, it was the same \u201cChord Progression\u201d but it was kind of slowed down, and every other part of the two songs is very different with the only similarity just being the \u201cChord Progression\u201d which is played in a different tempo.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kwesta-and-Wale.jpg\" alt=\"Kwesta and Wale\" class=\"wp-image-2427\" title=\"Kwesta and Wale\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kwesta-and-Wale.jpg 500w, https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kwesta-and-Wale-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kwesta and Wale performing their hit collaboration single, \u2018Spirit\u2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>My own personal opinion of this whole issue would be that the Chord Progression, in this case, is not copyrightable at all because that would mean that nobody else would essentially be able to play that Chord Progression commercially without infringing on Spiritchaser\u2019s rights, which is unfair since \u201cChord Progressions\u201d are regarded public domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, that was just my own personal view, but the saddest part of this is that even if my theory turns out to be true, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kwesta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kwesta<\/a><\/strong> and his team would probably not get back the money because it was their own negligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only civil law remedy, in this case, would be unjustified enrichment, this is a scenario where an individual is unjustly enriched at the expense of another individual, and in this case, the law would oppose an obligation against the recipient to make restitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, you know this kind of remedy is based on an excusable mistake, meaning that they would have to convince the court that giving Spiritchaser their royalties was an excusable mistake. But if Spiritchaser were the one that insisted on getting paid, then obviously they can\u2019t be forced to pay it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/the-downfall-kwesta-rap-lyf\/\">The downfall Of Kwesta and Rap Lyf<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And so a lot of you might know about Kwesta\u2019s leaked split sheets&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[33],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kwesta.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2377"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2431,"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377\/revisions\/2431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nsfas.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}