Hit amapiano song Labantwana Ama Uber singer Miano says he has not been paid a cent for the gigantic song three years later.
Speaking to Sunday World on Saturday, Miano, born Sicelo Sikhosana, says he was used, ill-treated, outcast, and blacklisted after he demanded answers from his previous record label about monies due to him and his co-stars Kammu Dee and Semi Tee regarding the song.
Currently sitting on over 12-million views on Youtube, Labantwana Ama Uber was an amapiano club anthem that trended every week as different dance challenges emerged and the song received airplay on major radio stations in 2019.
The song also garnered over 1.9-million total streams and the trio was awarded a plague for their achievement.
Miano told Sunday World that with all the song’s success, he has nothing to show for it, not a car or house and no tangible investments.
“Things are currently bad for me. It is hectic but I am starting to see the light because I have just signed with a new record label and I am looking forward to releasing new music again.
“We wrote that song and then we were approached by the record label and made to sign contracts… I wrote that song with Kammu Dee and he introduced me to Semi Tee.
“The record label now made us sign contracts to say that we will own 40% of the song and they will take 60%… The contract also stated that when there is an endorsement deal, we take the products and the record label takes the money. I then refused to sign and that is when we had problems and they started bad-mouthing me and basically blacklisted me,” he said.
Miano added that even at the prime of their song when they were touring the country and trending every week, there were fights within the group and ill-treatment.
“We appeared as a unit in public and in private we fought a lot and there were always issues regarding money, and because they had the muscle, they easily blacklisted me. Till this day, I hardly get bookings around Johannesburg. I get people who tell me straight up that they have been instructed not to work with me,” he claims.
Miano alleges that he has not received a cent for song shares, royalties, and brand endorsements.
“The only amount I have recieved is for gigs and that too came after a serious fight. I would be shocked because people would tell me that I should be rich because they paid x amount for our booking only to find that I have been paid way less,” he says.
The muso says he decided to keep quiet over the past three years because he was warned against starting industry fights early in his career.
“I did not even have money to pay lawyers. So I just shut up and focused on my work. but that whole experience demotivated me in a very big way because when I get approached for things like motivational speaking I turn those down because, who am I going to motivate anyone about this industry that has robbed me so much,” he says.
In July last year, fellow muso Semi Tee also took the record label owner Thato Molemane of Levels Entertainment to task after his lawyers Nkoana and Matlala requested the financial records of the trio regarding the song.
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