Praye throws blow

If Peace FM’s Entertainment Review programme were a live television programme, last Saturday’s edition would have been an embarrassing episode or a sour scene for viewers, at a time when everyone is crying for peace. Watch Video: Angelina by Praye

Praye Tintin, otherwise known as Nana Kwame, a member of the group Praye, almost turned the Peace FM studios into a boxing ring as he nearly fought one Isaac Baah, an upcoming musician who recently alleged that Praye Tintin stole the song ‘I and my shoddy are one” from him during Praye’s formative years.

It however took the intervention of studio panelists and producers of the programme to stop him from beating up Baah. This episode caused the programme to be suspended for over 15 minutes for tempers to cool down.

The issue of the stolen song came up when Praye was being interviewed on their preparation towards the launch of their new album tomorrow Wednesday at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra. Around that same time Isaac Baah had also come to Peace FM to see the Entertainment Review crew over his claims.

However a heated debate started between Praye Tintin and Isaac, during which the former asked the latter to provide witnesses to his claim, but even before he could complete his statement Baah had already mentioned some people who he said were witnesses to his claims. Fred Kyei Mensah, aka Fredima, whose studio Isaac claimed he recorded the song, was called for his side of the story. He confirmed that the song belonged to Isaac. “The lyrics are the same, except that Praye put some changes into the rhythm,” he remarked.

It would be recalled that Beatwaves recently published a story captioned “Trouble Looms Over Praye’s Song”, in which it indicated that Praye Tintin was challenging Isaac Baah to go to court to seek redress over his claim that Praye stole “I And My Shoddy Are One”. Baah, on his part, was asking for compensation for the use of his intellectual property without his approval.

According to Isaac, he met Praye Tintin in November 2003 and the latter asked him to join the Praye group. He said he joined the group and upon Praye Tintin’s request that they do a compilation together he was convinced and decided to be part of the group.

“We started the compilation on December 1, 2003 and I became fully convinced that we were brothers.I thus decided not to hide anything from him as well as the group. So I gave to Praye Tintin my demo which I had recorded four of my songs on. I suddenly fell sick and was on admission at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. Before I knew it, my music was out there in public.”

According to him, he could not believe it until he saw the Praye group perform the song on TV3’s ‘Music Music’ programme.  He alleged that when he contacted Praye Tintin, he asked him to come over for them to settle the issue but that did not happen.