‘I’m just a smart businessman’ – Maphorisa on owning masters

by Staff Bona

Record producer DJ Maphorisa caused a bit of a stir on the internet this week after he shared his explanation of what permits him to own the masters of people’s work.

On Instagram Live, the deejay stated, “When you record music on my computer, my studio, with my electricity. That sh*t is mine. It belongs to me. You must understand when you work in someone’s studio, that sh*t is not yours.

“Go buy your studio, buy plug-ins, FruityLoops [a digital audio software now known as FL Studio], a microphone and whatever, then make music and release it. Then those will be your masters.”

The proclamation made by DJ Maphorisa did not align with fellow record producer Prince Kaybee‘s values, which led to a brief war of words on social media.

Returning to the topic of owning artists’ masters on X (formerly Twitter), the award-winning deejay stated, perhaps in jest, that he did not know how to produce songs, and that he was just skilled in the art of business:

“Ok guys, I surrender. I’m not a producer, actually, I really don’t know how to produce songs. I’m just a smart businessman, I won’t even try to produce music anymore. I will also try to improve my English because clearly I can’t read tweets, but the masters belong to mwah. Sharp neh.”

Also see: Prince Kaybee addresses DJ Maphorisa’s claim on owning artists’ masters