WINDHOEK- After battling with his label for years, rapper Diogene Ochs, popular known as D-Jay, has announced that he’s leaving his long time record label, Izinyoka Entertainment, where he spent over four years.
The award-winning artist was first to be signed under the record label along with Jericho, Street Kids and Ponti. D-Jay claims to have recorded over 50 tracks in the studio but he couldn’t release them without the record labels permission and expressed his unhappiness with the label. “This label is too slow. I was promised a lot of things, cars, luxuries and so much more. They are not doing what they said they were going to do. He (Stephen Gaeseb, owner of Izinyoka) kept me on hold for a capable years and I don’t do what I want. I wasn’t free. I’m told who should be in my videos. I was not allowed to mingle with other artists. I can’t wait over four years to release an album. I thought things would be easier,” laments D-Jay.
The rapper released his second album, Favourite Rapper under the label and adds that he did not receive a single cent from it. “I don’t know where my money for that album went. I just saw my music in bars around Windhoek and other towns. I don’t regret anything. I just hate people who take advantage of others. Everything was perfect with Zox there but he (Gaeseb) acts like a boss but has no experience with the music business,” accuses D-Jay. He adds that does not regret anything because he learnt a lot from the experience and will be starting his record label. “I was cut from everyone but now I feel free. I’m going to work with this people who approached me. I’m moving on with my life.” D-Jay determines.
The Manager of Izinyoka Entertainment, who also spoke on behalf of Gaeseb, Jerald Jansen, confirmed the rapper’d withdrawal from the record label but denied the accusations made by D-jay. “He must come out and tell the truth, he (Gaeseb) wanted him to be business man, and he offered him to go to university and to empower him. Music is just supposed to be a hobby but he never wanted and he left. The week before he left, we were supposed to master his tracks. I’m very disappointed in what he said. We had plans for him but things were not working out.”
“We organised a perfect CD launch for him. Who bought all those artists from South Africa who came to perform at his CD launch? Who paid them? We bought Angelo, last year’s former Big Brother Africa housemate, to be on his album, that money came out of our pocket. He should be thankful to what the man has done for him, he chose to invest in him, he could have chosen to invest his money somewhere else and that’s how he repays him,” Jansen worries.
D-jay is currently on tour in the South and will be releasing his album Champion (Succeed or die trying) before the end of the year.