Internationally recognised Malawian musician Tay Grin’s name has been painted black having been implicated in a stealing scandal.
The award winning artist is being accused of stealing a video concept from gospel musician Ennoh. He is being accused alongside another musician Kell Kay.
According to Ennoh who is fondly known as mwana wa igwe, his fellow musicians stole a video concept for his song entitled Ndigubila which features Lulu. He argues that in Tay and Kell Kay’s video the same setting, chair, and actors among others.
“Yesterday I came across behind the scene pictures and videos of Tay grin’s and Kell Kay’s song. The setting was quite the same as mine. Some of the actors were the same ones I used. I did not make an issue of this. It’s not uncommon to have the same actors and same settings.
“Then I was talking to one of the mutual actors on another issue unrelated to art. In passing he asked me if I shared my video concept with anyone,” said Ennoh.
The gospel musician has also advised the accused to retire from music if they have lost the ability to be creative. He believes stealing art is akin to stealing government resources.
“When the brains have exhausted its creative ability the best option is to retire and not to steal. Stealing art is as bad as stealing government money, one day our laws will be robust and someone will have to pay for all this evil.
“I am putting my life on the line to make sure I am the last victim. Let us see how it end,” he said.
In response, Kell Kay has denied stealing the video concept. The Lilongwe based singer questions the logic in the accusations made considering that mwana wa igwe did not share his video concept.
“For starters, I have had that concept for my video for months, I only saw your snippet a few hours before my video shoot, and by this time everything for my shoot was already set. Nokha in your post mwanena kuti (you have said) you didn’t share your concept with anyone, so if you didnt share it, where could I have stolen it from?”
Grin and Kell’s video is being highly anticipated in Malawi. People are speaking highly of the fashion in which it was shot.
I do not know much about the music industry but from my observation Kell Kay’s response to say ‘he already had the idea months before and then came across Ennoh’s video last minute’ does not let him get away with not stealing the idea, especially after the fact that the setting and actors were the same. Be it he and his crew had used different actors, and changed few things then maybe it would have been a different story.