Stunna speaks out on royalties

By Seleoe Nonyane

Sesotho Fashioneng rapper Thaabe Lestie, better known as Ntate Stunna, has spoken out on allegations of owing his former producer royalties for the Koriana sound on the hit EP.

Stunna maintains he does not owe anyone any money at all.

Troy Mowsioa – a producer from Botshabelo in the Free State who worked on the Sesotho Fashioneng project in 2020 – vented on his Facebook account last week accusing the rapper of not paying him any royalties for the Sesotho Fashioneng project.

Koriana (accordion) is a portable musical instrument that uses a hand-pumped bellows and two keyboards to sound free reeds, small metal tongues that vibrate when air flows past them.

Troy said he was surprised that he had not received any royalties despite the fact that the project had performed very well, adding that he owned 50 percent of the project.

Despite the accusations levelled at the rapper, Troy expressed gratitude to Stunna for elevating his career but said he was ready to expose his ‘evil heart’ so that people can know him for who he really is.

To set the record straight, Ntate Stunna said there was no truth to Troy’s accusations as he had paid all his dues to everyone.

He said he met the producer through rapper J-Master J-Cob Mofokeng and the producer’s beat initially cost M1500 but, after agreeing on a discount Troy charged him M1000.

He maintained that he paid the producer in cash as he did not have a bank account at the time, so there is no proof of payment.

Ntate Stunna proclaims that he does not owe anyone as he has not yet received any royalties for the EP in question.

“I have no authority to issue royalties as that is the responsibility of the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO),” he noted.

SAMRO is a copyright asset management society. It was established by the South African Copyright Act, and aims to protect the intellectual property of music creators by licensing music users, collecting licence fees and distributing royalties to music creators

After Troy’s rant on Facebook, Ntate Stunna’s manager, Berry Matseletsele, said the former should have not handled this matter in the manner he did. Rather he should have approached him directly.

Matseletsele said despite the public spat he was still keen on engaging Troy on the matter in a ‘civilised manner’.

Troy later apologised for how he had handled the matter.

“To my fans, supporters, artists that I work with and love, I apologise for handling this in the wrong way; I will to do better. “It was very dark for me for quite some time and keeping all this to myself was wrong. I am apologising for my mental health and for me to be productive again,” he added.