Fast-rising reggae artiste Hefla Nyah is adamant his single, 'Hungry', is not a cover of veteran deejay Clement Irie's 1989 hit, 'Hungry Nuh Laugh'.

In a recent post on Facebook, Clement Irie accused Hefla Nyah of copying his song.

However Hefla Nya and his manager, Roger Grant, of 619 Entertainment, are adamant that Clement Irie's accusations are not true.

"Some of the lines in my song might be similar to the lines in Clement Irie's song, but I did not copy his work. In fact, I never even knew of him or his song until I heard it last year when I was a guest on FAME FM's Full House Friday morning show. Collin Hines played both songs and made comparisons about the similarity of the message in songs. Prior to that, I never heard of Clement Irie or his song," said Hefla Nyah.

According to Roger Grant, the whole thing is just coincidence. "The fact that Clement Irie did a song called Hungry Nuh Laugh, which came out some time in the late 80s and Hefla Nyah, who is a talented young artiste, has a song about the same topic is purely coincidental. I think it's unfair for Clement Irie to accuse my artiste of copying his song, if you listen both songs, it's clear that Hefla did not copy his song. I'm a professional in the business. I always do things by the book, and if we were going to produce a cover of Clement Irie's song, we would have sought the necessary clearance to do so," said Grant.