Whose song is it anyway?

• Zope is my name nickname LEPEZO,spelt backward-Penene Ponono

• This is my song-Vee Mampeezy

The music video released a week ago and garnering close to 200K views on social media, with a trending #Zopechallenge on Tik Tok, made it look like the king of house Kwasa, Vee Mampeezy had given his fans what they wanted and Vee was back.

But no sooner had celebrations begun than controversy over who owns the song that has captivated the nation had erupted.

Voice Entertainment reached out two artists, Vee and Penene Ponono who is featured on the son and both were adamant that they owned the song. Vee (Odirile Sento) expressed frustration and confusion over Ponono’s claims while Ponono said he felt cheated by Vee.

“You see I have worked so hard for my brand and I protect it with all I have and when things intentionally done to harm and humiliate me happen, I often don’t know what to say. It is especially hard that this is coming from someone I consider my brother, someone I have helped so much,” Vee shared.

According to Vee the song Zope is his intellectual property that he has worked on from the scratch with his producer DJ Bino.

He says whilst recording the song Penene Ponono happened to pass by their studio.

“He was just passing by and he jumped on the Live video I was shooting as a way to promote the song. This song was recorded and mastered by me and my team. I brought in Penene just as an act, on the day we did the Live show with The Voice,” Vee said.

Asked why most of the artists he has worked with have often turned around and accused him of sabotage, Vee said, “Ask him which role he played in the song, this is really unfair. This is betrayal from Penene. These guys take advantage of my forgiving heart and I sometimes feel they don’t want me to succeed but at the end of the day the truth shall set us free. I mean if I am such a bad person there is something we call Karma, ask yourself why it hasn’t come for me, why do they always come back to me if I am such a bad brother?”

For his part the comedian Penene Ponono, born Bokamoso Nthomphe (25), says Zope is his nickname spelt backward.

“Ask Vee what Zope means and he won’t tell you. The truth is I wrote that song and gave it to Vee. I have worked with Vee for sometime now and I knew something like this was going to happen,” Penene Ponono said.
According to the comedian further proof that he owns the song is Vee nagging him to be part of Zope music video.
“Vee is selfish. There is a lot I can say about this but I won’t . I wrote the song and gave it to him because he is Vee and whatever he touches turns to gold but for him to claim the song is not mine is something else.”