Hiplife artiste Guru has been accused again of stealing a song.
This time round, a young rapper Nautica, signed onto M.I.M LIFE Records, alleged that Guru stole his song titled ‘Obumpa’ after negotiations to feature the ‘Lapaz Toyota’ hit maker on the said song broke down.
Nautica, in an interview with NEWS-ONE alleged that after he heard Guru’s version of the ‘Obumpa’ song, he was convinced that it was the same as his ‘Obumpa’ track in terms to rhythms, chorus and tempo, which he had earlier sent to Guru’s manager during the period both parties were in talks to get Guru on his song.
“I called Guru and told him I wanted to feature him on my ‘Obumpa’ track. He agreed and asked me to send the song to his manager. We sent his manager the song; he said he liked it and will send it to Guru later because at that point Guru was not in Ghana. After two days, his manager called me and explained that Guru will do the song with me for GH¢3,000 but my manager also said it was too expensive so we called off the deal.
“A week ago, one of the guys on our label drew my attention to the fact that Guru had released a song titled ‘Obumpa’ which was the same as mine. I found the song on the internet, downloaded and listened to it and true it was almost the same in terms to rhythms, chorus and tempo,” he stated.
According to Nautica, when his manager confronted Guru’s management about the issue, they denied any wrongdoing.
“My manager confronted Guru’s manager about it because they had taken the song we sent them, modified and released it without our permission. His manager’s defence was that he never sent my song to Guru; hence it was not true that his song was a direct copy of mine. Guru, on the other hand, denied ever listening to my song as well because his manager did not send it to him. He even asked that we buy eggs and rain curses on him if we believe he stole our song,” Nautica added.
Meanwhile, Michael Ohene Antwi, one of the reps of Guru’s management team, admitted that they earlier held talks with Nautica about a collaboration for the said song but negotiations broke down when Nautica and his management said they could not pay the amount Guru had demanded.
“There is a group in Brong Ahafo called ‘Obumpa’ and they split due to some problems but after they came back together, Guru decided to feature on their comeback song. The lyrics and rhythms are not the same so I don’t know why these guys are going around with this story. If he wants to get attention, this is not the right way. If Nautica and his management have a problem, they should attack the group called Obumpa not Guru. The title of the song Guru featured on is not ‘Obumpa’ but rather it is the name of the group that featured him,” Ohene Antwi said.
This is about the fourth time this year that Guru has been accused of stealing songs. It would be recalled that an artiste known as Osagy also accused Guru of pilfering his song ‘Bossu’ which has the same arrangements and chorus settings as one of Guru’s latest works also titled ‘Bossu’.
Another artiste, Tee Phlow, also accused Guru of stealing the concept of ‘Alkayida’, claiming he (Tee Phlow) released his ‘Alkayida’ song right after placing second in ‘The Next Big Thing’ rap contest.
