Top new local band Skeem last week severed their newly formed ties with Sony Music. MARIA McCLOY and CHARL BLIGNAUT find out why
WAAR WAS JY? was one of the most popular tunes of the past year. It came off Skeem’s debut album; won them a 1997 South African Music Award and established them as some of the hottest property in the huge money- spinning kwaito (local dance music) market.
The album was produced by an independent outfit headed up by Lance Stehr called Ghetto Ruff, also home to SA’s premier hip- hop band Prophets of da City (POC). Both POC and Skeem share a lead artist – Ishmael Morabe.
But three weeks ago Skeem, who have a verbal contract with Ghetto Ruff, signed a new contract with Sony Music. They received R40 000 up front for the deal, which was to see Sony produce their second album, with an option to six more. Then last Friday Skeem, with the rest of the Ghetto Ruff stable, burned that contract outside Sony headquarters in Johannesburg.
It was a show of public defiance against what Ghetto Ruff have called an unfair situation in which Skeem believe they were “misled by Sony and duped into signing a contract deemed to be akin to indentured servitude”. The contract, believe Ghetto Ruff, was heavily skewed in Sony’s favour in several clauses around royalties, production and merchandising and tied Skeem to an unreasonable period. Music union insiders who have examined the contract seem to agree that the odds fall overwhelmingly in Sony’s favour. Ghetto Ruff say Sony took advantage of inexperienced musicians and that this is indicative of the troubled SA recording industry.
But MD of Sony Music, Guy Henderson, this week denied these and several other accusations. He says that Skeem approached Sony about the deal and not vice versa. Henderson says that Skeem expressed unhappiness with their situation at Ghetto Ruff. This has angered Ghetto Ruff, who say Sony have exploited minor problems within the stable.
Henderson adds that Skeem were offered a long term option so that the act could be taken international. He insists that Sony’s lawyer advised Skeem to seek independent legal advice at least three times before signing the contract.
Skeem, however, went off for four hours and returned to sign. Within 24 hours they received the R40 000. This week Skeem closed ranks and stuck by Ghetto Ruff’s statements. All they would say was that they wanted out of the contract because they realised, after they showed the contract to other people, that “it was fucked”.
More significantly, however, Henderson says that it is Sony’s philosophy not to work with bands “who don’t want in” and that, for the past 10 days, they’ve been offering to release Skeem from the contract if they don’t like it. All Skeem would have to do is pay back the R40 000 on reasonable terms and walk away. Henderson says Sony has even made this offer in writing, but have heard nothing from Ghetto Ruff.
Ghetto Ruff say it’s not that simple; that the two companies are also disputing ownership of a new Skeem recording and that, anyway, there is more at stake than just walking away. Stehr is seriously considering suing Sony for damages caused to the running of the Ghetto Ruff stable and to his reputation.
But, in the end, to him the issue is that Sony is alleged “to have done everything possible to prevent the artists gaining access to business and legal knowledge” and that this kind of “bullying” in the industry must end. As another Ghetto Ruff spokesman put it: “Musicians are at the mercy of six large, mainly white, bureaucracies that have not made the transition with the rest of the country. We need a formal enquiry. Musicians are generating about R6-billion a year and still there is no regulation around issues like copyright … “
Henderson agrees that the industry is in need of regulation. He still can’t seem to understand why Skeem have burned a contract they could just have walked away from. Ghetto Ruff, however, have taken their campaign abroad with a POC tour to Belgium and will be talking to international media about their complaints.