Poet and scholar Ntsiki Mazwai has accused Gallo Music of owning the master rights to her music without investing in her talent. Her accusations come after singer Samthing Soweto, the leading vocalist on the song Amalanga Awafani by Mas Musiq, Lawd Weezy, TO Starquality, and DJ Maphorisa was not included in the credits of the song.

TRIGGERED

Social media has not taken kindly to the exclusion, which Maphorisa explained was due to Samthing Soweto allegedly being greedy and wanting to own all the masters. "Why would you wanna sabotage that song? You just sabotaged yourself just because you are greedy and want to own all the masters of the song,' Maphorisa said. Ntsiki compared this to her own experiences and has come forward to say, she too is a victim of exploitation by major label, Gallo. She said this happened while she was in her prime.

EXPLOITED

Ntsiki said, one day, she will share all the details of her experience. "One day I want to talk about how Gallo Records owns my master but didn't produce it.,' she said. "They have no invoices. They came in at the last part of the photoshoot and paid for mastering (cheap) and my contract gave them all my intellectual property and rights,' she added. "I was obviously young and didn't know contracts. Also this thing of big corporates signing with desperate artists and exploiting them. I paid for everything and did everything. My only mistake was signing to Gallo thinking I needed them.' She added that she was then released from her contract three months later and they kept all of her work. "They own my IP. This is a clear case of artist exploitation. One day when I have my money right, I'm going to Gallo. And not only that I will collect other artists.' Gallo had not responded to queries at the time of publishing.