Comedian MC Jessy has breath fire after Music Copyright Society of Kenya(MCSK) demanded him to pay a Kshs200,000 for him to proceed with his upcoming standup comedy event dubbed +or- 40.
Jessy adamantly stated that he will not pay the amount of money, daring MCSK to arrest him
“I received a very threatening call that if we don’t pay the Ksh200,000 to MCSK,CAMP and PRISK we are not going to do the show and they said they are going to arrest me if I dare do the show without paying the amount of money. It was not a kind call for me and I felt disrespected as an artist,” he said in a press briefing.
Jessy said he was left wondering why the society was charging him and how they even arrived at the said amount of money.
“I will not pay MCSK. If they want to arrest me, let them come. I am ready and am waiting,” he said.
He noted that he has spend a lot of money to organize the show and put everything in order.
“The people that are calling us to demand for money are not even artists or content creators , they don’t participate in anything. They are just business people who want to siphon from the hard earned cash. It is expensive to do a proper production and then someone has the audacity to see the effort, using your own money to plan the show, and they come there demanding 200,000 goddamn shillings. I want to see them arrest me,” he said.
He went on to note that the creative economy has been neglected in terms of legal frame work, adding that they will only comply if the matter is addressed.
“There is no way the government can support the creative sector. Even if president Ruto says now he wants to support the creatives, there is no framework to get the money to the person that needs to be supported, the money will get lost up there to MCSK, KAMP and PRISK,” the comedian noted.
He also noted that the comedians’ association resolved not to pay any money to MCSK.
“I have created my own music for comedy, who told you am going to play someone else’s music? I have also talke to artsist who I will use their music, and I will pay them if it is a must. Those CMOs, I will not pay come and do whatever you wanna do,” he said.
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