After two years of denial, renowned Tanzanian singer Shaban Mwakyusa, alias Rayvanny, has officially ditched the Wasafi Classic Baby (WCB) record label, an outfit owned by Diamond Platnumz.
Rayvanny made the announcement on Tuesday, saying after six years with WCB, he was now looking forward to developing his own record label, Next Level Music (NLM), which he founded while still under WCB.
Saturday Nation has now established that Rayvanny was allowed to terminate his contract with WCB after he was able to raise the required Tsh1 billion (Sh50 million) to buy out the remainder of a contract he signed when he joined the label in 2016. As per reports, the contract was to run for 10 years.
“For your information, I did confirm that the exit fee he had to pay to buy out the remainder of his contract was Tsh1 billion. If you did notice from his social media pages, Rayvanny has been busy doing a lot of shows abroad in the recent months. All the money he made from the tours was used to pay for the release clause,” revealed an ally of Rayvanny’s who is a former WCB employee.
We could not independently verify the amount, with Diamond’s lead manager Sallam Mendez not responding to our messages by the time of going to press. The two are currently engaged in a series of tours in Europe.
However, one thing that is certain is that Rayvanny parted with millions of shillings to have him released from his WCB contract.
His departure was imminent, with Diamond confirming in May during a tour of the US to promote his EP (extended play) record, First of All, that a number of artistes were set to ditch the label. “This year, there are artistes who will leave Wasafi to do their own things. I will support them. We can’t always have the same artistes at Wasafi,” Diamond said in an interview with BBC.
Following his departure announced in a two-minute video posted on Instagram, Rayvanny paid glowing tribute to Diamond, who commented: “NLM president! Let’s Goooo!”
Since reports of Rayvanny’s impending exit emerged, it was always centred around the humongous amount of money his boss was demanding to trigger the release clause.
In April, famous Clouds FM presenter Mwemba Burton, popularly known as Mwijaku, claimed in an interview that Rayvanny had been asked to pay Tsh2 billion (Sh100 million) to activate the exit clause. According to Mwijaku, at the time Rayvanny was unable to raise the amount and had been locked in negotiations with Diamond and WCB to lower the amount. However, an insider, who spoke with the Nation in May revealed that WCB was not going to release him for anything less than Sh25 million, noting that negotiations were ongoing at the time.
It is understood Diamond wasn’t pleased with Rayvanny’s plan to leave as this would mean losing a substantial amount of revenue brought in by the Te Quiero hitmaker, who, until his exit, was WCB’s second highest income generator after him. But with Rayvanny determined to part ways, Diamond couldn’t hold on to him for fear of triggering an ugly divorce as was witnessed when Harmonize forced his way out in 2019. Harmonize would later say Diamond did not want him to leave and so kept frustrating him.
In this regard, Diamond wanted a peaceful separation with Rayvanny, especially at a time when he feels his label is targeted by government agencies like the Tanzania Art Council, Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority and the Copyright Society of Tanzania, which he has openly criticised.
Babu Tale, a lawmaker from Morogoro South and longtime talent manager who forms part of WCB management, is believed to be one of the key brains who aided in Rayvanny’s exit negotiations, with both parties settling for Tsh1 billion. Having paid the amount, Rayvanny now has full rights to all the songs he produced under WCB. Tale, who enjoys a cordial relationship with Diamond, brought Rayvanny to WCB a year after it was formed in 2014. Diamond has publicly maintained that WCB spends millions of shilling on growing artistes’ brands whenever they join the label and it can only be fair to have his investment back and make profits whenever the artistes go on to become mega stars.
In the case of Harmonize, Diamond stated he spent over Sh5 million on him when he joined as a rookie. In 2018, Bongo 5, quoting a source within WCB, reported that any artiste signed under the label who wished to terminate his/her contract prematurely would have to pay an exit fee of not less than Tsh10 million (Sh500,000), but the amount would change depending on the successes achieved by the said artistes under the label.
The clause gives WCB an edge when negotiating the exit fee as witnessed in the cases of Rayvanny and Harmonize. When Harmonize left, he blasted WCB for offering him an exploitative contract, saying when he signed it, he wasn’t aware of the fine details.
“I had a 10-year contract with WCB. Whatever I earned, they took 60 per cent. It did not matter whether the money came from music or from endorsement. From the 40 per cent I took, I still had to top up with my own money to push my music,” he said.
Rayvanny’s exit is a huge blow to WCB as he generated over Sh2 million monthly for the label from music streams and shows. When Harmonize left, Diamond was dejected. He had publicly stated that the singer, who was the first artiste to be signed by WCB, was the highest income generator after him.
Rayvanny considered the terms of the contract no longer favourable. He is also said to have planned to establish his NLM label, which he couldn’t do under WCB.
