Harmonize had an ambitious plan to turn his music label Konde Gang into the next Wasafi but he failed and ultimately fired all signees.
The Bongo singer in September 2020 signed upcoming musicians Killy, Anjella, Cheed and Country Boy to his label hoping they would become the next big breakout in the industry.
However, by January 2022 it emerged that Harmonize had fired all of his signees and that Konde Gang only existed as a music label on paper.
Harmonize’s former signee Cheed complained about the manner he was ejected from Konde Gang while speaking during a recent interview with East Africa Radio.
Cheed lamented that the contract he signed with Konde Gang was exploitative.
He explained that the terms listed on the contract said that if a musician terminated the contract prematurely they were supposed to pay the label a whopping Tsh1 billion/Ksh57 million but if the label was to terminate the contract prematurely it was supposed to pay the musician a meagre Tsh10 million/Tsh577,377.
“Kuna kipengele pale muhimu sana msanii ukivunja mkataba ama management ikivunja mkataba. Sasa management imevunja mkataba maana kuna kifungu pale 17 ambacho kinasema management ikivunja mkataba inatakiwa imlipe msanii Tsh10 million na msanii akivunja mkataba natakiwa alipe Tsh1 billion,” Cheed said.
Cheed noted that the term on compensation upon contract termination violated the regulations of music regulatory body BASATA which caps any compensation at 10 per cent of the amount musicians are to pay music labels in case they terminate their contracts before expiry – meaning that Harmonize was to pay Cheed about Ksh5 million not Ksh500,000.
Early this year, Harmonize’s former signee, Killy has revealed that before he and two other signees left the singer’s label, they were forced to return cars that were given as gifts when joining the record label.
Speaking to Wasafi Media, Killy said the cars were under Harmonize’s name and that they were not part of the contract.
All the signees who had been given cars were forced to return them when Harmonize terminated their contracts.
“Mwenye Gari zake alisema tuziache Sasa mimi ningefanyaje ? . Gari zilisajiliwa kwa Jina la Konde Gang, na hizikuwepo kwenye Mkataba wetu ”
In a previous interview, Killy said that Harmonize terminated his contract and three others Anjella, Cheed, and Country Boy.
“Konde Gang terminated the artiste’s contracts. No one ever said that we wanted to leave. We got a call to attend a meeting and we were told that as management they wanted to terminate our contracts. People think we left the label but it is them that terminated the contracts and only one signee was left. The CEO is the owner and he did what he wanted, it is business at the end of the day.”
While announcing their exit last year, Harmonize through his record label announced that he and the artistes reached an amicable agreement to terminate the contracts.
“For that reason, these artistes will be free to work and make a contract with any company or individual. We believe they are talented young men who have the potential of making it in the music industry,” read the statement.
