Rayvanny on July 12, 2022, officially announced that he had parted ways with Diamond Platinumz’s record label Wasafi after six years.
The Bongo singer expressed his gratitude to his former boss and recounted some of his highlights in Wasafi in an emotional tribute video uploaded on his social media.
Shortly after Rayvanny’s exit, reports started emerging indicating a fallout between Vanny Boy and Wasafi management caused by the terms and conditions of his contract.
It was reported that the ‘I Miss You’ hitmaker was required to pay Tsh800 million/Ksh40 million for terminating his contract with Wasafi before its expiry.
Rayvanny is said to have a Tsh1 billion/Ksh50 million exit clause on his contract but the amount was negotiated down to Tsh800 million after Babu Tale intervened. (Tale was the one who brought Vanny to Wasafi in 2016).
The singer is required to raise the Ksh40 million to buy out the remainder of the contract he signed when he joined the label in 2016. As per reports, the contract was to run for 10 years.
During the negotiations, Rayvanny went ahead to perform at Nandy Festival on July 23, 2022, in breach of his contract with Wasafi which at that point had not been terminated yet.
Wasafi slapped Rayvanny with an additional fine for performing at the Nandy Festival before completing the process of exiting Wasafi.
Diamond’s record label demanded that Rayvanny pays an additional Tsh50 million/Ksh2.5 million for performing at the Nandy Festival before completing the process of exiting the label.
Amid all these reports of Wasafi clashing with Rayvanny, Diamond Platnumz caused confusion on August 22, 2022, with his birthday message to Vanny Boy.
Wasafi’s top boss Babu Tale while speaking during an interview with Wasafi FM affirmed that Rayvanny was still legally signed to Wasafi because he had not completed the process of leaving the label.
“Kama hivi tunavyomruhusu unavyomuona anafanya show mwenyewe kila kitu mwenyewe… Tunasuburia kila kitu kikikamilika anakwenda kuwa msanii independent. Kwa hio ni vitu ambavyo viko kwenye utaratibu. Rayvanny wakati huu yuko Wasafi hajaenda kusaidiwa amekwenda kufanya biashara,” Babu Tale said.
Tale further revealed that Wasafi still owns all rights to Rayvanny’s song at the moment.
“Kumaliza si kama taa pap, kwa sabubu catalogue zote zipo chini ya mikono ya Wasafi mbaka leo. Ukiona Rayvanny anaimba zile catalogue zote za muziki ziko chini ya mikono ya Wasafi,” Tale said.
