Khago Says Dancehall Artists Should Seek ‘Prayerful, Productive’ Women As Partners
Nah Sell Out artist Khago, has castigated Dancehall artists whom he says are choosing intellectually deficient and incompetent women who have nothing to offer except bedroom favours as partners, instead of intelligent, productive and godly women who are looking out for their best interest.
Khago was speaking against the background of his recent successful million-dollar lawsuit against producer Kemar “Flava” McGregor, which was spearheaded and marshaled by his wife and manager, Francine Gayle, as well as his other impending court litigations against several other Jamaican producers.
The Manchester native said that it was not only music producers who are to be blamed when issues of copyright breaches occur, but the trifling artists themselves, who were preoccupying themselves with formerly taboo sexual activities and imbibing on alcohol, instead of putting their business in order.
“Artiste is to be blamed too. Wi love gyal too much. An wi love drink too much… we love these tings too much,” Khago said during an interview with The Fix Podcast.
“Now artiste haffi a call mi an a find out how wi can go about doing all these things and mi a seh: ‘di first ting bredda, oonu need fi stop look gyal weh suck… Look a woman weh can pray and look a woman weh ccheck fi yuh my lord. Seen. Mi ongle need a woman weh can pray. First ting if yuh gyal caan pray, sen har go back to har mumma.
Khago said Francine, as his wife and manager, had been a the forefront of his copyright battles, financially supporting him when his money was low and holding his hands and praying steadfastly for him to be delivered.
He hailed her for being a solid support indicating that it was she, and not the lawyers, who tediously pored over copious amounts of copyright case files from across the globe, analysed them and then brought it to the attention of the attorneys who did the filing in the McGregor case, which involved Khago’s albums Spirit, Walk A Mile, and Dancehall Soca.
“A Francine literally duh di case… Di only ting weh di lawyer do is bear di name mostly. Maybe because di lawyer dem nuh teck yuh business as serious as how you would teck it,” Khago explained.
McGregor who had been retained by Khago’s team to recoup royalties, had initially taken the artiste to court for fraud, breach of contract, defamation of character, and copyright infringement in 2018. However, Khago’s team. Led by his wife Francine Gayle, had repudiated the claims and subsequently counter-sued.
In July 2020, US District Judge Jose Martinez, according to documents from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, dismissed the case “without prejudice” due to McGregor’s Streaminn Hub Inc’s failure to “make themselves available for depositions” and failure to “abide by court’s orders to retain new counsel despite numerous chances to comply”.
On February 16 this year the South Florida court awarded Khago US$763,626 in damages in the counter-suit filed against McGregor, who is the principal of Streaminn Hub Inc.
Khago is to receive US$300,000 in statutory damages for copyright infringement, and is to also be paid US$99,568.59 in compensatory damages for tortious interference with business relationships.
He is also to be paid US$298,705.77 in punitive damages for tortious interference with business relationships; and US$65,352.00 in reasonable expenses and attorney’s fees for a total award of US$763,626.36.
Following the verdict, Gayle had subsequently, warned aspiring artistes to learn the music business, not “get caught up in the hype” or leave their royalties and publishing in other people’s hands, or if uncertain, or unable to review your files themselves to seek advice from a lawyer”.