Veteran Dancehall deejay Macka Diamond has sent her fans to do some research after she apparently stumbled upon the Spanish song Rikita y Too by Panamian Reggaeton artist Jhonny D, which heavily samples her 2013 hit song Dye Dye.
On Tuesday, Macka shared a video of herself gyrating to the beat of Rikita y Too on Instagram and asked her fans whether it was similar to her Truck Back-produced song.
“Can someone check out the copyrights for this please no #dyedye this?” Macka asked in the post.
Amidst the flurry of responses was one from Malvo, who urged her to have the Jhonny D song checked out, as he had, in the past, similarly heard a Spanish recording of another mega hit song by another Jamaican deejay.
“Same I heard Mad Cobra song ‘Girl Flex’ in Spanish I was surprised 😳😳make sure yuh check it out,” the follower noted, while another Germany-based follower stated: “But I’m hearing this placing in clubs and all over Germany I even thought it was a colab”.
“I smell money tho, these people really like to use people things its all good tho me know dem ago treat yuh right,” latty_ok added. 😂
Another fan brought up the now-underway Fish Market/Dem Bow copyright lawsuit featuring Steelie and Clevie Productions which hauled a slew of Reggaeton artists and their labels before the courts.
“This the reason Steely and Clevly are ah sue reggaeton,” the fan noted, while another added: “many of reggae dancehall song over reggaeton…nuff 😂😂😂😂gwaan guh collect n let others know too”.
When her compatriot Stacious pointed out that the song comprised of “definitely ur melody!!”, Macka responded: “yes me love”.
One follower, the icelady, earned the wrath of a Jamaican woman after she posited that many Spanish speakers had only got to know about Macka Diamond after Jhonny D released his version.
“How many Spanish speaking people learn about Macka cuz of this remix. I’ve never heard it but I love what he’s saying. Saying dance beautiful, doh be like di woman tekn lash, you Issa bad girl, you provoke, show off and dance beautiful. Just ask the artist to translate it for you YES latinos, hispanics whatever yall want to call us, we all love you artist and love to share your music,” she noted.
Her declaration however, earned her the ire of kimtheegoddess, who said the Panamanian was out of order for using the song which he released in February 2019, seemingly without the consent of the original composers.
“Gurl BYE!!!! Yall dont even like the Haitians right next to you! Stop capping! Where’s her money, reckonotion and respect? For him to use it, he knew she was! Yall stay trying to disrespect,” she declared.
Macka Diamond’s fans’ misgivings are not new though, because as far back as 2013, producer veteran music producer Winston ‘Niney’ Holness,
Niney had expressed similar concerns that Reggaeton musicians were recording Jamaican songs in Spanish without the consent of the original creators.
Niney had contended that the Reggaeton artists had been ripping off Jamaicans by giving no credit and paying no royalties, and as a consequence were continuing the practice of the “international community robbing the profits of Reggae music”.
“When we make songs, Spanish people take it and sing it different, and we don’t speak Spanish, so we don’t realise. Because of that, the Spanish artistes don’t pay us royalties and it slips right under our nose. I think the Spanish owe reggae music millions of dollars right now. Songs like Murder She Wrote is in Spanish right now and I don’t even think Sly and Robbie know,” Niney had said.
Another act of deception in which he had expressed grave concern about, was that Reggaeton artists had been infringing on the work of Jamaican artists and producers with impunity via their use of the Dem Bow/Fish Market beat.
“These guys are making the money from our music. Reggaeton was made from a Jamaican single, Dem Bow. Every rhythm in Reggaeton is the same drum pattern of Dem Bow and mi neva hear that nobody collect royalty from that yet,” Niney had explained to The Gleaner newspaper at the time.
“So these people make an entire genre from reggae music and get the major endorsements, while we don’t get much from our property,” the producer, who is also known as Niney, The Observer had added.
