Rayvanny finally leaves Diamond's Wasafi records, but at what price?
What you need to know:
- Rayvanny made the announcement on Tuesday saying that he is now focused on his record label "Next Level Music" and is looking forward to growing music talent.
After months of denial singer Rayvanny has officially left Diamond Platnumz’s Wasafi Classic Baby (WCB) records Tanzanian.
Rayvanny made the announcement on Tuesday saying that he is now focused on his record label "Next Level Music" and is looking forward to growing music talent.
In a two minute video Rayvanny paid a glowing tribute to his former boss Diamond Platnumz thanking him for giving him an opportunity to show his talent to the world.
“It has now been six years since we started working together, my team, my family WCB Wasafi, we have been driven by love and unity. I have learnt a lot and we have achieved a lot together. I was the first artiste to win a BET award, also the first artiste from east Africa to obtain 100,000,000 view plays on Boomplay. All these happened while we were together. My heartfelt gratitude to my family at Wasafi but most especially to my brother Diamond Platnumz, for giving me an opportunity for the world to see my talent,” Rayvanny said.
“My respect to you Diamond Platnumz will be forever, God bless you Diamond. But there comes a time when a child goes out to start their own life and bring back respect to his family. Now it is my time to leave, and grow other talents at my record label, Next Level Music,” he said.
Rayvanny was signed by Wasafi in 2015. Despite enjoying a lustrous career with hit songs like “Tetema” and “I love you” rumours of the singer mulling an exit started circulating in 2021.
According to media reports, his exit was yet to materialize because Rayvanny at the time had not been able to raise the funds required to buy out the remainder of his reportedly 10 year contract.
Claims made by Tanzania’s popular social media influencer and Clouds FM radio presenter Mwijaku, Diamond was demanding a total of $829,383 from Rayvanny to allow him leave the label.
But it seems the two parties have reached an amicable agreement, this is evident by Diamond’s comment on Rayvanny’s Instagram post regarding his exit.
“Thank you @wcb_wasafi ,” Rayvanny wrote.
“NLM PRESIDENT! Let's Gooooooo!” Diamond Platnumz responded.
Rayvanny becomes the third artiste to leave Wasafi. Singer Harmonize was the first to force his way out in 2018 to form his Konde Gang Record label following another departure by Rich Mavoko.
According to Harmonize he had to pay WCB more than Sh500 million to terminate his 10-year contract under which he had only served four years.
He accused the label of exploitation, resulting in him deciding to go solo.
