Original 'Defe Defe' singer Mabel Tiwaa Rockson breaks silence over copyright dispute

The singer of the popular “Defe Defe” song has expressed surprise at the way Team Eternity has handled the copyright issue.

Kwame Mickey, the producer of the original “Defe Defe” song, has asked Team Eternity to do the right thing by meeting him and providing compensation.

He intends to pursue the matter because, in his view, they have sampled parts of a song he produced in the past.

Speaking on the issue for the first time in an interview on Kumasi-based Hello FM, Mabel Tiwaa Rockson of Hallelujah Voices said she was not pleased with the approach taken by Team Eternity.

She indicated that she enjoyed their song when she first heard it and thought they should have approached her earlier, as it would have settled the matter more easily.

“I heard my children singing the song and thought they had coined something like that. However, it turned out a group had sung it. I wanted to do a remix, but I had to hold on because their song was out there and doing so well.

“It was later that Kwame Mickey reached out and said he had called out Team Eternity on social media and that if he had told us, we would have advised him to give it to God, but he chose a different approach.

“So they called my husband and told him that we are Christians and should handle it as Christians, not like those who sing hiplife. I felt offended when my husband told me about what they said,” she said in the interview.

‘Defe Defe’ song performed by Hallelujah Voices, was written by Osuani Afrifa and executively produced by Kwame Mickey for Kaakyire Music Productions. It was released in 2004.

The recent copyright issue has sparked a lot of debate. While some argue that Team Eternity’s “Defe Defe” is different from Hallelujah Voices’ song, others contend that the mere fact that two lines are literally the same constitutes copyright infringement.