Catholic Music Composer Jude Nnam Sues Kcee, E-Money For N150 Million

Popular Catholic music composer, Sir Jude Nnam, has dragged singer Kcee and brother E-Money to court for alleged Copyright infringement.

Their music label, Five Star Music is also a Defendants in the suit.

He is seeking “A DECLARATION that the copyright, as well as the ownership rights to the song titled ‘SOM TOO CHUKWU’ which was surreptitiously included in the music album titled “CULTURAL PRAISE VOL.1 by the 3rd Defendant without the Plaintiff’s consent or authorization, is vested in the Plaintiff by Virtue of his composing the said song in the year 2001.

KCEE

In the Statement of Claim with Suit No: FHC/L/CS/304/202 , Jude accused the defendants of reproducing, marketing and distributing his work without his permission as the original owner of the work.

He explained that the music was first produced in 2001 with the title “SOM TO CHUKWU”, to celebrate his daughter’s first birth, but he was surprised to discover that his original work has be reproduced, duplicated, sold, marketed, advertised, distributed to the general public and retitled as “CULTURAL PRAISE VOL.1” by the Defendants.

Jude Nnam

He said he composed the musical work for private worship of God and for liturgical purposes in the church, especially during offerings, tithe and donations in the church adding that apart from composing the musical work in sofa and staff notation, he went to fix the musical work in audio form with the help of a choral group and he relied on Keyboard, African drum, wooden gongs and guitar as musical instruments

Infoexpert24 recalls that Kcee released an Okwesili Eze Group-assisted single titled ‘Cultural Praise Vol 1’ in December 2020 while a sequel was put out in January 2021.

Jude Nnam had, however, in the suit alleged that Kcee copied his lyrics for the song. A check on Kcee’s previous singles revealed ‘Som Too Chukwu’ was a quantum leap in his streaming figures.

There are insinuations that Kcee was approached by Nnam in January before the release of the song’s sequel.

E-Money

Mr. Jude wants the court to compel the defendants to jointly and severally render an account of the profits, income, and benefits generated from the adaptation, production, distribution, sale, advertisement, marketing, and performance of the titled “SOM TOO CHUKWU” from December 2020 till judgment and the sum of N150,000,000 as general damages