How Don Jazzy’s Twitter Rants Exposed His Business Foolishness And Selfishness

Here is an article written by Ms. Uduak Oduok who is an Entertainment Attorney, if you are a lover of entertainment, you will take your time to read this and see the truth in it, no side takes please…

I began writing, yesterday, about the recent potential legal drama between Don Jazzy and Wande Coal to discuss the alleged claim of Intellectual Property theft and legal issues present, which I will still do, albeit on a different post. However, while writing, I just got tired, like really tired of the state of the industry and the foolishness being served of late.

Eyin Nigerian artists eti su mi, really (you Nigerian artists make me weary, really). Sheesh. Y’all can be off the hook, many times. You’ve got a grown man and so called boss for that matter such as Don Jazzy displaying foolish behavior of the highest order on twitter; and crying about a problem he created in the first place.

What are we supposed to do Don Jazzy? You are the business man, you also should have some scars to show from the epic Mo’Hits fallout/ dissolution that you “get it.” Didn’t you at least learn something from that? What’s good? I really tiyah, for real.

ON A DAY THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALL ABOUT TIWA SAVAGE’S RELEASE OF HER SONG ‘EMINADO’(Goodluck charm) featuring Don Jazzy, Don Jazzy totally pooped on that parade and brought the bad luck charm by undermining Tiwa Savage’s shine with his silly cries on twitter about an alleged theft by his former artist.

Are Wande Coal and Don Jazzy mates? What rubbish?! Why is Don Jazzy, the egbon (older one and adult) and most importantly the boss getting on twitter and stooping down to this kind of level as a business owner and leader in the industry? It is embarrassing and unacceptable. It also is ridiculous because from the facts, HE CREATED THE PROBLEM.

How can you not have your split sheets in place as a producer? I don’t care if the artist is your mother, father, sister, brother, girlfriend, wife, gay partner or what have you. You get that in place!

How, at this point in your career, do you get into a studio with your artist and not delineate the lines on who owns what? If you made music under Mavin Records, the music belongs to Mavin, if you signed the proper legal documents evidencing this basic arrangement. You’ve got the sound recording belonging to Mavin. The lyrics and composition also probably belong to Mavin, at least a large portion, given the kinds of agreement I see artists sign with labels in Nigeria with certain aspects in music publishing that differs from us here in the States, so why are we even here?

You clearly did not do this because Wande Coal can produce the original demo song of which he co-authored with you; with no delineation of those rights spelt out. Are we suppose to cry or be sad for you? Why?

As Wande Coal correctly indicated in his tweet, Jazzy has Coal’s phone number and contacts and could have easily contacted him to resolve the dispute, privately. He did not do so. Instead, he chose to follow an impulsive, selfish and egotistical act on twitter that instantly shifted the attention from the release of Tiwa Savage’s beautiful ‘Eminado’ video, all in less than twenty four hours, to a showing to the world that Nigeria’s music industry and its leaders have no focus, no direction and is a big joke.

When was the last time you saw any of the label heads in the USA, including Jimmy Lovine, Diddy and even Kanye West get on twitter to fight artists who allegedly steal their work?