Nominated senator Crystal Asige, a former signee, has sued Sauti Sol band members for breach of contract.
Ms Asige wants the court to order the artists to reveal how much money they made from the hit songs Lenga, Extravaganza, Ukiwa Mbali, Intro, and Favourite Song in 2019.
At the same, Asige is requesting that the court order Sauti Sol to compensate her.
She is also requesting that they deliver all licensing information for the songs she is displeased with.
Sol Generation Records Limited, Bien-Aime Baraza, Polycarp Otieno, Willis Chimano, Delvin Mudigi, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Kenya have all been sued by Crystal Asige.
Sauti Sol’s hit songs include Short and Sweet, Melanin, and Extravaganza, among others.
Asige describes herself as a visually impaired songwriter, performer, and producer in her court papers.
According to her, she was living in Mombasa in 2018 when Baraza allegedly asked her to join Sol Records to write and produce a song.
She claims she was the label’s only female and person with a disability.
“While under the first defendant’s record label, the plaintiff co-composed and performed on the widely known recordings ‘Extravaganza’ and ‘Ukiwa Mbali’ together with the second to fifth defendants, and her then label mates, professionally known as Bensoul, Nviiri the Story Teller and the group Kaskazini in 2019 and her contribution was credited as such,” she claims.
In 2019, Asige claims to have arranged and performed background vocals on Bensoul’s song “Favourite Song.”
She claims she composed her own sound recording titled ‘Lenga,’ which was allegedly only available on KLM’s Facebook platform. She claims that the airline and Sol Generation agreement was made without her approval.
“Additionally, the plaintiff’s original composition was taken from her and recorded as the sound recording titled ‘Intro’ and featured in the second to the fifth defendant’s latest studio album titled ‘Midnight train’ without the plaintiff’s knowledge or consent and released in June 2020 on the worldwide digital streaming platforms and social media and she was accredited as co-author of said song,” Asige’s court papers filed by Mwakireti and Asige Advocates read in part.
She claims that following the success of the ‘Extravaganza’ video, Bien-Aime approached her and asked her to sign a full recording contract.
“The plaintiff communicated her reservations on the aforementioned agreement with the first defendant and requested to discuss and negotiate the particulars,” she claims.
They never met for negotiations, according to Asige.
She continues: ”On November 7, 2019, the plaintiff was invited for a meeting with the second defendant (Bien-Aime ), Natasha Qubu (first defendant’s manager) Moriasi Omambia (first defendant’s legal manager and shareholder) and informed that the first defendant (Sol Generation) no longer wanted to continue with the plaintiff at the label, initially citing that the first defendant was ‘flat broke’ with no resources to keep her.”
She claims that during the meeting, she agreed to keep full master recording rights for Lenga. Asige claims she wrote, composed, co-produced, and performed the hit song and thus has copyright.
“The plaintiff was further informed that the first respondent was receiving a significant cash deposit of approximately Sh5 million from the sixth defendant (KLM) for use of her Lenga song,” she claims.
After a brief stint, Asige left the group in 2020. Her departure was marred by controversy, with the senator claiming that she was evicted illegally.
The group denied the allegations, claiming that the vocalist violated the terms of the contract.
By the time this article was published, Sauti Sol had not responded to Asige’s suit.
