Grammy award-winning artiste Zakhele Madida, better known as Zakes Bantwini, is reportedly struggling to get royalties for his smash hit albums and remixes. Osama.
Zakes Bantwini, won his first Grammy with Nomcebo Zikode and Wouter Kellerman, during his song They said won Best Global Music Performance earlier this month.
The popular musician and producer has been successful for two years making hit tracks such as Money and Osama.
However, it has been reported that the artist is not happy with the company that made the remix Osama.
Unpaid royalties
At World Sunday reports that Zakes has taken a company called Paradise Africa Distribution (PAD) to court for breaching their agreement by remixing his blockbuster song. Osama without permission.
In an affidavit filed at the Johannesburg High Court in December 2022, the artist said he was also owed royalties.
PAD, an independent label that represents a number of artists, slapped Zakes with a R2.4 million lawsuit against his company Mayonie for breach of contract.
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He accused the musician’s label of signing a marketing and sales deal with international label Universal Music.
PAD said they had finalized their contract with Zake’s label more than a decade ago, before he also signed with Universal Music.
The publication reports the deal with PAD and Mayonie allows them to “exploit and distribute the album’s audio and audio visual products abroad”.
It is reported that the deal allows PAD to sell Zakes songs globally, but not in Africa.
“This further allows service providers and other third parties to use the digital album in all formats and technical products through digital distribution.”
Osama remix
For the exploitation of the album, PAD agreed to pay 50% net of the profits to Mayonie. PAD and Mayonie allegedly signed the agreement in October 2016, and the contract is supposed to last for 10 years until 2026.
PAD said that when Zakes signed with Universal Music, he breached his contract, because he gave Universal Music exploitation rights. PAD says it will get about R2.4 million.
According to the publication, Zakes reportedly admitted that he signed with Universal Music but denied that he breached the contract and that PAD suffered financial losses.
Last year in August, PAD released a remix of the song, Osama by Peter Tong and Paul Roger, the remix of which is still being promoted on the website. The song can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes.
In the agreement, the remix must be agreed upon by both parties. Zakes also said he has unpaid royalties for his albums.
The Warga reached out to Zakes Bantwini and PAD for comment and await their response.