Kwesta Reflects on His Music Business Mistakes: "I Take Full Responsibility"
- South African rapper Kwesta finally open up about his social media battle with controversial music executive Nota Baloyi.
- The rapper also opened up his mistakes that lead to the collapse of his work relations with Nota
- The rapper admitted to have made a few bad decisions and is owing some artists money
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BY LWAZI NONGAUZA - FREELANCE WRITER
Top Mzansi rapper, Kwesta (real name Mfundo Senzo Vilakazi) has finally broken his silence behind his beef with Nota Baloyi.
A few weeks ago, Baloyi accused Kwesta and businessman Leroy Khoza of robbing artists like Kid X, Makwa and DJ Maphorisa of R8 million.
Source: Twitter
According to Nota’s media interviews quotes and social media updates, Kwesta and former business partner, Leroy Khoza have robbed a number of artists and they are the main reason Rap Life, Renovate and other music businesses have collapsed.
In an exclusive interview with Briefly News, Kwesta refused to respond to anything that Nota said. However, the rapper revealed what he believes he has done wrong, which led to the demise of their seven-year thriving music and business journey.
‘’I will not entertain accusations and counter-accusations that are leveled against me by someone who refuses to have a face to face frank discussion with me. I am extremely sad how things are between myself and some people I used to work with. I take full responsibility for most of it because I am the main reason.
‘’First of all, I should have never ever gave Nota or anyone person an impression that I or my art is under their ownership. That was my first biggest mistake that regret. Secondly, I should never get into any serious relations without signing formal binding contracts. To be blunt, maybe I should not have mixed friendship with business.’’ said Kwesta
While addressing questions about owing artists’ royalties and not registering, the 32-year old admitted that there was a ‘misallocation of funds’. According to him, those misallocation of funds led to him ‘mistaken been given monies’ that were not due to him.
‘’Based on what I have been told and seen, now I do believe that some artists who contributed to my previous albums are right in demanding payments. I am in contact with everyone whom I believed is owed money. So that is being resolved."
He continued:
"As for other artists’ royalty issues, I am not sure why some people insist that registering or crediting producers, compilers and creatives at SAMRO, was my responsibility. This is not true. By extension, it is also not true that I claimed monies for other artists or I am the reason they are not paid by SAMRO."
"One thing that I wish to clarify is that I am not an accountant or businessperson. I was never involved in the administrative side of running all the businesses that I was associated with. Therefore I don’t understand how and why Nota seems to think that I singlehandedly robbed everyone we used to work with.’’ said Kwesta
The Ngundu-hitmaker has officially independently released 15-tracks album called 'g.o.d Guluva’. It features Reason, Focalistic, KiD X, Yanga Chief, Thabsie and Zingah.
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Meanwhile Briefly News previously reported that Slikour has advised Kwesta to start taking care of himself.
The Ngud' hitmaker was a guest on Slikour Onlife and they chat about the rapper's new album g.o.d guluva. Towards the end of their conversation, Slikour took the opportunity to give his industry mate some sound advice.
Slikour, who started rapping professionally way before Kwesta, told him to start taking care of himself. The businessman said the musician needed to read books and start seeing how big the world is "and then ask yourself what part do you play".
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Source: Briefly News
