Nigerian rapper, Ycee has called out his former record label, Tinny Entertainment for reaping off the hard work of artistes without acknowledging or even paying them for it, especially in the area of streaming.
This slam came in a lengthy post after Tinny Entertainment posted a celebratory post on Instagram, celebrating 100 Million cumulative streams via different platforms without mentioning any of the artistes that made it possible.
Reacting to his post, Ycee called out his former label, Tinny Entertainment, revealing he can no longer keep quiet while such is happening.
Talking partly about his anger towards the label, Ycee revealed that all the money made from Streaming the songs of artistes on the label went solely to the CEO of the record label, Tinny Entertainment and he’s finally speaking out because he doesn’t want other young artistes to fall prey to the same trap.
All these, he revealed in a statement below;
Before I start I would first like to apologize to everyone of you all that I hold in high regard because I’ve tried my possible best to not let my social media be used as a point of negativity or conflict but I’ve been left with no choice
So the CEO of TINNY ENTERTAINMENT took to his Instagram page yesterday to show gratitude for 100million plus streams (across all platforms) and this was brought to my attention which left me confused because the post as seen above was accompanied with the caption “Grateful” and the handle of the label and no mention of the artistes whose content generated those streams.
LET IT BE KNOWN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT NOT A SINGLE DIME GENERATED FROM THOSE STREAMS GOT INTO THE POCKET OF ANY OF THE ARTISTES RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT THAT GENERATED THOSE STREAMS AND TO ALL THAT HAVE MADE CONGRATULATORY COMMENTS ON THE POST, THE ONLY THING THE CEO IS GRATEFUL FOR IS THE FACT THAT HE HAS YET AGAIN, SEEMINGLY GOTTEN AWAY WITH PROFITING OFF OF OTHER PEOPLES SWEAT (like he has been well known to do so many times in the past)
I have been silent as I have quietly been focused on rebuilding my life and career and also out of respect to my previous employer but he, in turn, has not accorded me that same respect.
Actions ranging from attacks on my reputation by spreading falsities about me, saying I betrayed him by leaving his label (knowing fully well the terms on which our business relationship ended) to leaking my music which he absolutely has zero rights to release but unfortunately happens to possess in order to delay and destabilize my debut album release.Before anyone asks why I’m doing this, it is simply to protect any other artistes from suffering the same fate and falling into the hands of this manipulative and delusional human being.
I have spent the most part of the last 24hours on set shooting the first single off my album and I am going to get some rest at this juncture so nobody should call my phone
Thank You
Speaking further about the issue, Ycee revealed he left Tinny with zero funds and that threw him to a homeless state because there was no cash to rent a place for himself.
Music for me has partly been about making money and about enjoying the ride, touching people’s lives and doing what I had to do. So I walked away from my catalogue, walked away from everything, and started from ground zero. when I left Tinny Entertainment I was homeless, all the time I spent out of the country last year, I was with my family in Maryland in the U.S. I couldn’t come back to Nigeria because I was homeless. I didn’t have a house. Since 2017 I’ve been homeless and once I decided I wanted to leave Tinny Entertainment, under a month I got my own place. Paid for fully by me… I didn’t do anything, I didn’t call nobody out last year, I didn’t rant, I didn’t say anything about anyone, I did what I had to do, I took my L. But one thing I won’t stand for is when someone chooses to be delusional and create their own reality… On several occasions, time after time, I’m running into people telling me Tinny is saying this and that about you or you’ll be in a conversation with Tiny and four times out of five Ycee comes up… if you miss me just say you miss me.