Musician Mpaka Records boss Ykee Benda has disclosed that rising star Calvin Chembazz turned down his offer to join his record label. This was after the two artists teamed up on their successful collaboration dubbed ‘Nkufeelinga’ in 2022 that topped the charts.
There were speculations that Chembazz, real name Kiyimba Calvin, was brought on board to replace Drake Cali who had departed from Mpaka Records, running off to Canada for greener pastures. However, Ykee Benda has now clarified that he had indeed proposed signing Chamberz to the label, but the young artist declined.
According to Ykee Benda, the decision was made after a discussion with his team, and despite their close relationship both within and outside the music industry, Chembazz opted to independently manage his career instead.
Truth is after we released that song with Chembaz, we sat down as a team without him being present and discussed his talent. We wanted him to replace Dre Cali because he is my very close friend even outside music; not like Dre Cali with whom we became close after the music.
I proposed this to him and he confessed that he wanted to pursue his music career as a solo artist. If someone says this to you, you can’t force him, Ykee Benda noted.
Ykee Benda respected Chembazz’s decision acknowledging his desire for independence. Chamberz continues to seek Ykee Benda’s guidance and advice on his music journey, utilizing their friendship.
The revelation comes after Ykee Benda’s announcement that he would halt signing new artists for two years. While he listed financial stability as the main concern, Ykee Benda emphasized the huge investment required to support artists’ needs and extensive promotion of their music.
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The challenges we got with Dre Cali, is that he found us in a bad financial state and it was during COVID times. But he used to get his money monthly because he was an artist and you had to protect his sanity with the little we had. I paused my career for an entire year to promote him. So, you need to be in a better financial position to sustain the artist, he said.
@galaxytvug Chembaz turned down my offer to sign him – Ykee Benda #Rewind | #Jikonkone ♬ original sound – Galaxy TV Jikonkone
