Nigeria singer and Grammy award winner, Damini Ogulu globally known as Burna Boy faces song theft suit from Haitian music icon, Fabrice Rouzier.
Fabrice Rouzier had approached a New York court to seek redress and compensation over alleged infringement on his intellectual property right by Burna Boy and his french collaborator, Joe Dwet in their song: “4 Kampe II”.
Fabrice Rouzier told the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York that Joe Dwet song “4 Kampe” which he released in 2024 and later in 2025 did a remix with Burna Boy due to the success of the song, is in violation of his copyright and that he is pursuing redress before the New York court in line with the US copyright law.
According to him, “4 Kampe II” which Joe Dwet did in collaboration with Burna Boy greatly features the sound, storyline and composition of his song: ‘Je Vais’ which he released in year 2002.
He explained that when Fabrice Rouzier released “4 Kampe” in 2024 that he brought his attention to his concern about the song featuring some notable rhythm and lyrics of his “Je vais”. He told the court that Fabrice Rouzier admitted that his song indeed features some Je vais lyrics and sound. He said while they were yet to reach a mutual agreement over his concerns that Joe Dwet in show of disrespect and lack of genuine concern for his complaint, did a remix of the song in collaboration with Nigerian Burna Boy for what is now known as 4 Kampe II.
According to him, Joe Dwet choose to downplay his copyright concerns but rather considered the success of 4 Kampe which made him seek collaboration with Burna Boy.
Hence, the presiding judge on May 22nd, ordered the parties in the suit to be present on June 24th, 2025 for the preliminary hearing of the suit. He however pointed that the hearing will not be physical in a court but through CISCO conference call.
Fabrice Rouzier seeks that the court awards a compensation to him for the defendant deliberate and repeated violation of his intellectual property right. He also requests that the defendants: Burna Boy and Joe Dwet reimburse his attorneys’ fees and other prosecution cost.
Fabrice Rouzier demands that the court stops Burna Boy, Joe Dwet and their representatives from further use of his intellectual property and images and other things associated with him in both 4 Kampe and 4 Kampe II. He also request the court order the destruction of videos and audios copies of the songs.
This comes a few days after Davido reached an out of court settlement with four Nigerian artists in the United States of America who in a similar joint suit, accused Davido of stealing their recorded songs and sound and releasing the said song without their consent.
While the suit has been withdrawn from the court after the counsel to the plaintiffs informed the court that they have reached an out of court settlement with the defendant, Davido, this development places question mark on the creativity and originality of music superstars who frequently face song theft allegations.
Leave a Reply