Here’s How Much Kwesta And Wale Are Suing Telkom For Over Unpaid Royalties Owed To Them For ‘Spirit’

Here’s How Much Kwesta And Wale Are Suing Telkom For Over Unpaid Royalties Owed To Them For ‘Spirit’! There is no doubt about the fact that Spirit was one of the biggest songs in South Africa at one point. Produced by Makwa, the song made waves across the country’s radio stations. The hit single was used by telecommunications company Telkom in an advert and the award winning rappers are battling in court for royalties that they have not received from Telkom.

It was recently reported by Sunday World that music publisher Sheer Entertainment and Bridge IP are battling Telkom, Wunderman Marketing and Wunderman Thompson to court after the companies refused to pay the artists royalties amounting up to R1.5 Million for use of the song.

According to the news report, the companies used just over R850 000 for use of the song across different multimedia platforms. Approximately R702 000 was used for the behind the scenes portion of the advert.

The artists that made the song that is sampled in Spirit assigned copyright of the song to Bucks Music Group in the UK. According to the news report, after a royalty sharing agreement was agreed upon the royalties would be divided as 66,6% to Bucks Music Group, 16,6% to Makwa,11,6% to Kwesta and 5% to Wale.

Wunderman Marketing and Wunderman Thompson allegedly used the song in an advert for just under three years across multiple media platforms without approval from music publisher Sheer Entertainment meaning they infringed copyright of the song.

The newspaper asked Telkom spokesperson Moeketsi Mocumi for a comment on the matter but did not comment. He did however mention that Telkom is aware of the claims being brought up against the company.

Spirit was released was a single in 2017 and was one of the biggest collaborations a South African artist had done with an American based rapper.