Breaking Down the Asa vs Joeboy and Tempoe Copyright case | All You Need to Know

Popular Nigerian singer Asa has initiated a legal battle with singer Joeboy and producer Tempoe over copyright infringement relating to Joeboy’s 2022 single Contour.

Here are key takeaways from the ugly situation.

• The lawsuit was filed on September 30, 2022.
• Contour was released on August 19, 2022. It opened well to fans and critics, prompting Joeboy to accompany it with a Babs directed video on September 7.
• Tempoe, who worked with Asa on her last album ‘V’ produced Contour.
• Asa claims she and Tempoe had worked on/created elements of Contour back in September, 2022.
• The anger is that Asa was not consulted before Joeboy and Tempoe decided to release Contour using elements that she and Tempoe had created.
• Right now, Asa is asking that the song be removed from all platforms as well as 300 million naira in compensation.

What has Joeboy and Tempoe said?

There’s been no official statement from Joeboy and Tempoe. However, both musicians have taken to social media to react to the lawsuit. On Instagram Stories, Joeboy reposted the lawsuit with the caption: “LOL.”

He implied that Asa is trying to take advantage of him because of his meekness: “Cos I dey always do love and light you think say I be soft meat”, wrote Joeboy. He also returned with another caption: “You said I have 24 hours, it’s been 48hours, do something”.

Meanwhile Tempoe reshared Joeboy’s stories on his Instagram, reacting to it with laughing emojis.

What we think

The local music industry will start seeing more cases like this. In the absence of proper regulation, and with the proliferation of technology and opensource platforms, we run the risk of intellectual properties (IPs) being replicated for commercial purposes without the consent of the original creator.

However, it is not clearly established what particular elements Tempoe and Joeboy have stolen from Asa to produce Contour. Also, whether those elements were copyrighted before being reused or replicated. Otherwise, this is just another exercise in futility and will likely derail Asa’s reputation in the industry for not supporting smaller artists.

Nonetheless, in this shark-eat-the-small-fish market, nothing is unexpected.