MERCY CHINWO THREATENS TO FILE A LAWSUIT AGAINST OBIDIZ FOR HIS SONG TITLED MERCY CHINWO

Gospel musician, Mercy Chinwo, has threatened to slam a two billion Naira lawsuit against singer Obidiz for derogatorily using her name and image in secular music audio and video.

Obidiz released this song titled Mercy Chinwo on February 10, 2023, with the gospel crooner’s picture as the cover image.

Mercy Chinwo, through her lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, in a letter dated March 23 and addressed to Obidiz Lawson, ordered the secular singer to take down the music audio and video from all music digital platforms.

The letter read inter alia, “It came to our client’s rude shock that you recently released and published a song titled ‘Mercy Chinwo’ containing disparaging and derogatory lyrics…”

It added, “.....that you take down or cause to be taken down, the song titled ‘Mercy Chinwo’ which you published or be taken down immediately from all music digital platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud and any other platform whereby you made such publication.”

The gospel singer’s attorneys directed Obidiz to promptly comply with their client’s demands, “failure upon which the full machinery of the law will be set in motion against you including approaching the Court of Law to award damages against you to the tune of N2,000,000,000.00 (Two Billion Naira) in a favour of our client.”

Obidiz's response to this matter is:

“Na song I sing I no kill person.

'Mercy Chinwo for church o!

'....but for club na Cardi B set’ talks about a girl I met.

'Na she I sing about but una wan crucify me."

Defamation can kill, mai dia!

Below are the lyrics of Obidiz's song titled MERCY CHINWO:

"She dey share me the cake o!

and she no want commitment,

Mercy Chinwo for church o!

but for club na Cardi B set,

I no go commit o!

No commitment at all

Bad girl!

I no go commit o!

No commitment at all.

Yeah!

I’m up to it okpeke if you’re down for it.

If you’re down for oil money I go spend on it.

I’m up to it okpeke if you’re down with me

If you’re down with me. Baby, I go spend on you

I’m up to it oroma if you’re down.

Girl, if you’re down then I’m down,

She won dey form but the money come loyal her.

Ada too form but I loyal her.

The scent of her perfume

still dey my room.

No be chase,

Matter done pass shoot bird,

My number for her phone scooby to do.

Carry her friends sometimes make we threesome."

Obidiz ń fi orí oká họ imú.

(Obidiz is using the head of a python to scratch his nose).

This is clearly a case of a personality and brand defamation and possibly a trademark infringement.

Obidiz knows that Mercy Chinwe's name is popular enough to catch the public's attention to sell his music.

A novice mentioned that Obidiz can claim fair use to escape paying damages for this law suit.

This is far from fair use.

Using the name of a person whom you know that they stand for gospel and religion in a derogatory manner is not fair use at all.

It is an evil use.

Obidiz can only claim fair use if he sang about Mercy Chinwo for criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research purposes.

Using the name of a brand as the title of your song and in a derogatory manner such as:

1. Comparing her with Cardie B, a lewd secular singer and rapper;

2. Using her name in a song that has lyrics like 'club', 'threesome', bad girl;

3. Using her name in a song that has clear and direct sexual innuendos,

....show that Obidiz threw caution to the wind in desperation to become popular.

He has achieved his aim because I did not know him before now.

That show business phrase of 'All publicity, whether good or bad, is good for show business," may not work for him.

He needs to do the needful immediately by removing the songs from the listed platforms.

After the song has been removed from the platforms, a public notification needs to be made by Mercy Chinwo's lawyer that whosoever plays the song for commercial purposes in a film, advertisement, social media or terrestrial platform and other platforms will be held liable for damages.

Most def, I will not be playing this song or using it in my music projects.

Pride goes before a fall.

This could make or mar his music career.

He needs to retrace his steps and start on the right foot.

If you say, Mercy does not have a case, fine.

I hope that you will be there to provide financial support to Obidiz, an upcoming artist who is supposed to spend his mõney on better things when his lêgal fêês and damages accrue.

#obidiz

#mercychinwo

FAIR OR FARE OR FEAR?

According to Legit, despite Netflix making over N350 billion from the popular Squid Game series, the show creator has said he only got enough money to 'put food on his table'.

Copyright: cheatsheet.com

Hwang disclosed that he was not paid any extra bonus by the giant movie streaming platform.

Commenters on this page have gone haywire raining curses on Netflix for cheating the producer.

One of the commenters even compared this scenario to what happened to Nǃxau.

So, I decided to write this article.

Copyright: rottentomatoes.com

According to Wikipedia, Nǃxau ǂToma was a Namibian bush farmer and actor who starred in the 1980 movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy and its sequels, in which he played the Kalahari Bushman Xixo. The Namibian called him "Namibia's most famous actor".

According to San Youth Network, this main actor of, The Gods Must Be Crazy, was only paid $300, even though the popular 1980 movie generated over 60 million dollars.

The film unpredictably became the top grossing foreign film in 1980 and the lead actor, N!xau Toma won, international fame for the same.

Nǃxau ǂToma represented a sincere Bushman with an unashamed smile who discovers a Coca-Cola bottle thrown out of an aircraft and seeing it as an alien thing, he sets off into a comedy of errors.

According to the South African director of the film who first discovered the actor, Jamie Uys, N!xau did not know the value of paper money and he let his first $300 wages blow away.

Before being cast in the movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy, N!xau only had minimal exposure to modern life and did not grasp the real value of money.

However, by the time the sequel movie The Gods Must Be Crazy II was being shot in 1989 he had understood the value of money and demanded more than a few hundred thousand dollars before assenting to be recast in the film.

Nǃxau maintained that the money was needed to build a cinder-block house with electricity and a water pump for his family comprising of three wives and their children.

After his big-screen career faded, in 2000, the Namibian newspaper reported that N!xau returned to his home area living in a newly built brick house where he tended his cattle and became a farmer growing maize, pumpkins and beans.

N!xau Toma was later found dead in June 2003 near his home in Namibia after he purportedly went out to collect wood. It is believed he was fifty-nine and the exact cause of his death was unknown. He had suffered from tuberculosis in the past.

What Hwang got for his intellectual property and what Nǃxau got for his acting work-for-hire service were simply based on the consideration element of their contractual agreements which generally states that compensation must be sufficient but need not be adequate.

See the case of Thomas v Thomas.

So, what they got based on their contracts is fair.

What they got is sufficient fare to transport them from their previous position to their current position where value was added unto them.

Was it fear of the unknown that his work would not be a success that did not push Hwang to request for more fees and royalties in his agreement with Netflix?

This is the reason why intellectual property owners ought to strive to check for loopholes in their contracts before signing them.

They can also earn from their intellectual properties via future royalties and the sale of merchandise.

© DJ Irawo

Music and Creative Career Consultant @ Drumline Entertainment

Going Higher

After a rigorous time spent watching online lectures from Professor Fisher, the American professor in charge of the Copyright X classes from the Harvard Law School, going for class discussions with the professors at the Advanced Legal Studies department of the University of Lagos, studying and burning the midnight oil, I stand tall to say that it was a time well spent on acquiring knowledge for the improvement of the entertainment, software and literary society in Nigeria.

I am optimistic about passing this exam because I studied well for it.

Surely, I am going higher, climbing the ladder of success and greatness in the areas of my passions; music, creative writing and business consulting.

When was the last time that you studied for a course? Learning never stops until we go six feet below.