Ghana: Ebony’s dad, label clash over unreleased songs

The decision to transfer these rights was announced by the label through an official statement signed by the company's CEO Ricky Nana Agyeman.

“Rufftown wishes to announce to the fans and the general public that the record label is no more interested in releasing unreleased songs of the late Priscilla Opoku Kwarteng, professionally known Ebony Reigns, who is the reigning VGMA Artist of the Year, as promised,” reads the statement.

“Rufftown Records owns 60% royalties of Ebony Reigns unreleased songs but we are giving away full ownership to her father, Opoku Kwarteng.

“All her unreleased songs that she wrote herself are owned by her father, Nana Opoku Kwarteng. But the ones written by other songwriters still remains their intellectual property. If you wish to know more about when those songs will be coming out, please contact her father.”

Agyeman’s statement comes just after the senior Kwarteng claimed to have received a small fraction of the proceeds from events leveraging on Ebony’s popularity. Besides releasing the statement, Agyeman (popularly known as Bullet) also tackled Kwarteng’s claims.

“I went around looking for funds to support the funeral…All the money they donated you took all and didn’t even say, 'Thank you, Bullet' (remember these are people you don’t know from anywhere but my own people who wanted to support cos of me”, the first of his numbered posts reads.

“There was a cloth deal and you wanted more percentage so I gave you 10% of my share. You didn’t say thank you.

"VGMA awards: Money I was entitled to my percentage but I gave all to you, you didn’t say thank you.

"Ohio tribute concert: I didn’t take my percentage I gave all to you, still you didn’t say thank you.”

He also said: “I wrote and own 95% of Ebony’s album. By law, Ebony is supposed to earn between 10 and 20% royalties but I gave her 40%.”

During a radio interview on 15 August, Kwarteng denied most of Agyeman’s accusations. He claimed he received only 2 000 Ghanaian cedi ($410) from an alleged 39 000 cedi made at the Ebony Tribute concert. But “the Ohio thing, I know nothing about it”, he said.