5Five’s Papi, Appietus trade insults on live TV over royalties for ‘Muje Baya’, other songs

The rift between music producer, Appietus and Papi of hiplife group, 5Five, is getting murkier.

The two have been at each other’s necks for the past few days over the latter’s 2011 hit song, ‘Muje Baya’.

In the latest development, Papi expressed his distaste for an assertion made by the song’s producer, Appietus, on Sunday, January 15.

Appietus had claimed that he was never paid for producing ‘Muje Baya’.

This claim did not go down well with Papi who responded to the claim on CTV on Tuesday, January 17.

Papi called him names and claimed he benefited hugely from the song which they paid him for.

The artiste, one-half of 5Five accused the producer of making revenue off their songs via digital streaming platforms on their blind side since 2013.

Narrating the situation, Papi explained that when his distributor in early 2022 chanced on the anomaly, he sent screenshots to Appietus to help the probe.

“When I sent the screenshots to Appietus, he said really, we have to look for the person,” the musician narrated.

Papi said he subsequently reverted to the distributor who dug further to find that, the monies due five of their songs were going to a company called Creative Studios, supposedly run by Appietus.

“So I sent it back to Appietus and told him that ‘Creative Studios is your own studio… he was acting naive about the whole situation.”

“Meanwhile he knew he was spending the money. He was on TV saying that he kept receiving anonymous money via notifications on his phone and kept on spending it… As grown as you are, how do you spend money you know does not belong to you,” he quizzed.

In a rebuttal, the producer threatened to take Papi to court over what he sees to be defamation of his character.

The conversation on live television degenerated into trading of indults and unprintable words.

“If I wasn’t smart to put the songs online, you and Bulldog would have used me for nothing. You never paid me because you and Bullgod had made up your mind to never pay me,” he said on the show.

He said it is a deliberate publicity stunt cooked by Papi to promote his new song, adding that “they have used the song to their benefit and they did not pay for the master copy.”

Papi also apologised to their former manager, Bullgod for earlier accusing him of being the one behind the siphoning of funds from the duo’s music.

“Bro I am using this platform to say I am sorry, forgive me. I am being honest, from my heart,” he said on the show.

Meanwhile, Bullgod has also threatened to take the matter to court against the music producer.

This, Papi believes, is the reason why Appietus is on a campaign to drag them through the mud ahead of whatever repercussions that may follow.