TRUTH speaks on Joey B’s ‘sampling’ on his song

Fast rising African rapper and songwriter, TRUTH, released couple of jaw breaking singles in the 2014, with the song ‘NOKWARE’ produced by Dare and released on the 19th of August, 2014. Fast forward to the 18th of December, 2014, JOEY B released his OTOOLEGE song with beat and rhythm from the same samples of ‘Nokware’. The artiste in this interview with us has stated that his argument isn’t to create discourse on issues that affect the Ghanaian music industry but he feels he cannot bear it any more than to speak out.

Happy New Year to you. How will you say 2014 impacted your life as a rapper from Africa?

Happy new year to you too, well you know 2014 was a learning experience. It wasn’t easy and it will never be easy. You know trying to bring out something new is always challenging so in 2014, I decided to study a lot by listening to new stuffs and even though I am a rapper I just don’t just rap, I like to write songs too so I listen to different kinds of genre of music and different kinds of musicians like Youssou N’Dour, Fela Kuti, Jimie Hendrix etc… So in 2014 it was all about working and learning and it didn’t stop there I’m still doing that so that I can bring out the best all the time.

What and what did you do right and wrong in the last year?

I won’t say there is something I did wrong last year but since I wanted people to accept my new style I went through a lot of experiences which I did learn something from them, because when you are less patients it puts pressure on u which will make your decisions have emotions in them, which is not right. Before I met the right people am working with now, there are some people I met before and I think they were wrong for my career but now everything feels right.

You churned lots of banging singles in 2014, how well did the public accept you with your kind of style?

When I dropped my style out there at first people were like we can’t hear what he says and he talks about stuffs that will offend people but I continued to show them what I got because I knew one day they will accept it and God being so good they did especially with my song “NOKWARE” which is still making an impact.

You are gradually becoming the toast of every young person on the street with your kind of songs; does it sometimes get into your head knowing that your name is expanding?

I don’t let compliments get into my head because every single day I feel like I have someone else to impress but I do appreciate it a lot when someone tells me he/she likes what I do.

Recently there was a gist in town that Joey B used your beat or song, can you share what really happened?

You know when I heard that I was like “hold up” musicians do sample different songs all the time so if Joey did that on his single “Otolege” it is not such a big deal but yeah Joey did take some part of my composition which he should have given some credit to me but since he didn’t it doesn’t feel right so yeah that’s the only issue but apart from that am cool with it and it even tells how far that song “NOKWARE” is making an impact so yeah is cool.

Do you feel bad that people use others work without duly accrediting the original owner?

Sampling others song is not a bad thing, we all do it every musician does it but not giving credit to the owner or consulting them first might not be the right thing to do.

What is the way forward for you in 2015?

As I said I did learn a lot 2014 and did a lot of work too so this year is all about putting great works out there and achieving a lot.