Dancehall artiste, Kaakie, in August made news for exiting Xtra Large Music label which had been pushing her brand for six years - a move the CEO of the label says amounts to a wasted investment.
Speaking on the issue for the first time on Zylofon FM, Jah Masta Jay (JMJ) said he had leant lessons from the incident.
“Everything that happened was very good. One thing that I’ve learned this year is, there are no mistakes; everything is a lesson. What is coming next year is on another level from my side. What happened gave me chance to focus on myself. Managing an artiste means you have to live the life of the artiste, everything is about your artiste so all of a sudden I woke up and wow, I’ve a life to live. Any good manager, your artiste should be bigger than you that’s the standard and if you’re bigger than your artiste, it means you are investing yourself more than your brand…Your brand should be popular and bigger than you. What I noticed is that there is more to me than just managing an artiste. I’m a producer, I’m into audio-visual but all came to a halt because I had to focus on an artiste so now what is happening is, I’m trying to allow the other talents and space in me grow so that as a brand on my own is also well taken care of even if I should have an artiste,” JMJ told show host, Sammy Flex.
Kaakie announced on Instagram that she was no longer under the label but failed to give reasons behind her move, abrantepa.com recalls.
Days after, she told GH One TV she did not sign the best of contracts and attempts to get management review it proved futile.
“I was young when I signed to JMJ’s record label. I didn’t even involve a lawyer then, I only invited a lawyer to read my contract after I had signed a bad deal. It was one of the stupid mistakes I ever did as a musician. Management wasn’t ready for a review of my contract when I ask at some point”
“It may interest you to know I don’t even own a single song I have released so far. I feel I have wasted 6 years of my music career but I’m ready for a new beginning. Not even my Facebook and Twitter accounts are mine. Last I heard, my social media pages have been deleted but, I promised my fans of my new pages by the end of this week,” she said.
Although it was not a direct response to the claim, JMJ averred that Kaakie never registered any resentments and was therefore amazed about the development.
“I was at one agency’s office trying to get a deal on her behalf and a management member asked me to get into the XLM WhatsApp group. I checked and noticed that the very thing you guys saw on Instagram had been screenshot and put in the group. When she put it in there, she exited. She hadn’t complained about anything but if you’re smart, you should foresee things,” he said while indicating that the label kept quiet on the matter as it believed the truth would come out one day.
When asked if he sees his time spent with her as a wasted investment, the Xtra Large Music boss replied, “Yes and No… Yes because as we all know our industry is growing so most of the time the investment you do into artistes, sometimes if you are lucky, will break even but as in doing business and making profit is questionable. Yes, because she was a success story and anybody who start something…there are a lot of females or artistes who have been doing this business for almost ten years and they don’t even have a hit and they’ve broken even. The African continent and the world doesn’t even recognize them so even if you’ve been able to achieve that, it’s something worth praising…it was worth it.”
He however described Kaakie as a “wagon of talent” and wished her well in her endeavors.
