The latest controversy around ‘fake’ albums is kicking up a rumpus in Nigeria. An artist called Wisekid released an album called ‘Lasgidi Made’, which started generating millions of streams. The only problem: it had exactly the same track titles as the ‘Made in Lagos’ album by a much bigger star, Wizkid.
News outlet The Nation suggested that Wisekid was making 30m naira (around $73.5k) a month from the album, with fans unwittingly listening to it on streaming services.
Since the story made the news, Wisekid has denied any shenanigans. “I’m just an upcoming artist I know nothing about this and please am not the one distributing Wizkid album on apple music,” he said. “I have my company that distributes my music for me so I know nothing about this news spreading all over the internet.”
However, one distributor has already cut ties with the artist. Freeme Digital distributed some of his albums (but not ‘Lasgidi Made’ according to its statement). “We will be deleting the rest of Wisekid’s content on our platform and we have informed our legal team to immediately commence investigation on the issue and prosecute the matter to the full extent of the law,” it said.
Image by TCD PHOTOGRAPHY/The TCD Concept Ltd (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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