After about two decades of lacing his voice-over recordings on music produced by Hammer of the Last Two, Nii Mantse Aryeequaye, is praying the court to transfer ownership of all the works into his name.
Mantse, also the Founder of the Chalewote Street Art Festival, has sued Hammer for taking undue advantage of his works.
The suit filed in July 2023, also mentions Ghanaian musician Obrafour on whose musical piece ‘Oye Ohene’ remix, Mantse was featured.
Obrafour, had in 2023, sued Canadian rapper Drake in a New York court to the tune of $10 million fur picking ‘killer cut, blood’ an intro of the song voiced by Nii Mantse.
On ‘Honestly Nevermind’ Drake sampled Obrafour’s Oye Ohene remix released in 2003 for his track ‘Calling My Name’.
The sample is found at 0:53 seconds of the Drake tune, where it transitions into a house music vibe sending the song into a different type of ambiance compared to its initial trajectory.
Obrafour in court documents indicated that the ‘Hotline Bling’ hitmaker did not have his permission to sample the track.
The Ghanaian rapper indicated that Drake and other defendants following the release of ‘Calling My Name’ have greatly benefited from his work.
But, Mantse after knowing of the suit took to Twitter to vent his spleen.
In a series of tweets directed at Drake, Mantse, said that he is the sole owner of the phrase ‘Killer cut, blood’ on Obrafour’s ‘Oye Ohene’ remix.
He said after unyielding attempts to iron out issues with Obrafour and Hammer, he decided to file lawsuit against the two.
While he is seeking ownership of the moral and economic rights to the “killer cut, blood” he voiced for Obrafour’s ‘Oye Ohene’ remix, seeking an injunction restraining Obrafour, Hammer or anyone else demanding or receiving any payment for the work, ‘Killer cut, blood,’ and seeking General Damages against Obrafour for misappropriating his work and actively seeking to profit from it, he also wants Hammer to “relinquish all works he did for him and submit a record of all his works including what Hammer has used on other works.”
Although throughout his career as a voice artist Nii Mantse had done works with a few other producers, a lot of his recordings were with Hammer. His voice is synonymous with a lot of lot of The Last Two songs.
Hammer, in an interview Andy Dosty in February 2022 spoke about the role Mantse played in his creative process.
“Mantse is one of my biggest critics. He is unapologetically real and straight to the point. What you actually hear him do on my works, is actually him approving of my work,” he noted.
“We wanted an in-built DJ… because I didn’t like the fact that my song goes out and the club DJ is talking over the song as a way of introducing it to people. So we got Mantse – he comes in there, talks about the song; artiste and the beat… and then the song starts,” he further stated on The Library.
He then mentioned how he made Mantse quit rap because his voice was bigger than just rap. “I made him venture into broadcasting – I pushed him to go to Ghana Institute of Journalism”.
Nii Mantse has intimated that he was not paid for the works he did for Hammer.
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