Appietus Denies ‘Stealing’ Beat For 5Five

The song, Move Back, by the trio, 5Five, is without a doubt one of the biggest songs in the country today. It is enjoying massive airplays across the length and breadth of the country and at night clubs.

Many are questioning who owns the original of the hit song as investigations have revealed that the beat and concept of the song are no different from South African DJ Cyndo’s 2009 hit song Amerido.

What has got connoisseurs and music enthusiasts talking is why sound engineer, Appietus, ran his tag name, Appietus In the Mix, in the song if he is not the original composer of the beat.

When Hitz Entertainment News called Appiah Dankwah popularly known as Appietus, the engineer of the popular song on the growing story, he was quick to refute allegations of stealing saying there is nothing wrong with sampling beats from other musical works.

“It hurts because the whole thing is, am I the first person to take a sample and use it? Am I the first engineer in the world to use the samples of other [engineers]? People are using my beats in South Africa. They have taken my samples, they are using it. Its normal, its cultural exchange,” he said.

He said the group, 5Five have not released their album yet so people should wait when the group fails to credit the source of the beat, and then, they can raise their concerns.

“What is stealing if you give credit? The boys have not even released their album,” so that one can conclude that they have failed to acknowledge the source of the sampled beat, he urged, advising “People should wait for the album before they start talking. How do we steal a beat? Unless we are saying we didn’t take it (and that) it’s ours,” he lamented.

He admitted that he took the beat but, “I added some stuffs to it, … I reinforced the drums, I played some pianos in it so anybody who does not have the technical ear who is not hearing, it is his fault, he doesn’t know but he should go and listen to the original carefully and listen to what I have done.

“You realize that yeah we took a sample alright but we have not released an album so that we give the credit or they wanted us to say this beat is from South Africa in the song?”

Apietus explained that he used his tag name, Appietus in the Mix in the song because he produced the song adding, “…we totally changed whatever [it was], all we took was to take part of the instrumentation, we took it and used it. We looped it and we added our own and used it…”.

Source: myjoyonline