Her spirit is not at ease.
Grammy award winner musician Nomcebo Zikode says she has not smoked the peace pipe with her former record label, Open Mic Productions.
The Xola Moya Wam hitmaker says she is concerned about reports that she and Open Mic have finally settled their differences.
At the end of last year, Open Mic and Nomcebo were ordered by the court to enter into a joint venture agreement and settle the outstanding issues between them.
These outstanding issues were first made public when Nomcebo announced that she had not been paid any of her due royalties from the record-breaking global hit single, “Jerusalema” or her project, “Xola Moya Wam”. This remains the case to date.
Nomcebo now says that despite the court order that was obtained, and Open Mic’s commitment to remedy the matter, they have failed to come to the party per the stipulated timelines.
Sibo Mhlungu, CEO at IMG Africa which is Nomcebo’s management, says Nomcebo wants to continue with her career, creating hit music.
Read more | Nomcebo Zikode heads to court over the Grammy nominated hit, Bayethe
“Nomcebo is eagerly awaiting the finalisation of this matter so that she can continue with her recording plans and put out new music to further her career as a recording artist.
“We are unhappy with Open Mic’s delay, as we had jointly undertaken to adhere to clearly stipulated timelines on submission of all required information, which remains outstanding, thus prolonging the matter. Should this not be resolved in the coming weeks, we are certain that we’ll be going back to court,” says Sibo.
They have, in a statement, added that they will not be commenting further on the issue.
In December last year, Nomcebo took Open Mic to court about the Grammy winning hit, Bayethe. This after Open Mic Productions wrote to Spotify, asking them to remove the song from their charts, citing intellectual property infringements.
In her founding affidavit, which Drum is in possession of, Nomcebo says she is the co-author of the song with Zakes Bantwini and Wouter Kellerman. She says they recorded it in various parts until it was released to South Africa and rest of the world on 30 September 2022.
The Grammy nomination announcement was made on 16 November 2022, with the awards set to take place on 6 February 2023 in Los Angeles.
“The statement is false, and the respondent knows it to be so. It holds no copy rights, or any other intellectual property rights, in the song or the recording. It is also not entitled to attempt to prevent me from making recordings or performing,” says Nomcebo in part of her papers.
Read more | The Master KG, Charmza the DJ and Nomcebo legal battle over Jerusalema continues
She also accused the production company of not paying her what was due to her.
“The respondent has been exploiting the Jerusalema recording since November 2019. Notwithstanding the respondent’s obligations to account for revenues earned and pay me all amounts that are payable in terms of the agreement, the respondent has not paid me any royalties – not a cent – in relation to the exploitation of the above recordings.”
She has taken that matter of royalties for Jerusalema to court, against Open Mic and Master KG.
