Entertainment

‘We have paid Kiss Daniel over 120million naira and…” G-Worldwide fires back

Published

7 years ago

December 15, 2017

The drama between Nigerian singer Kiss Daniel and his former record label, G-Worldwide continues as G-Worldwide has revealed that it has actually paid him over 120 million.

Recall that there was a viral report that showed he was paid 30k monthly salary when he was still with G-Worldwide.

Below is a detailed reaction from the Emperor Geezy led G-Worldwide records on the Kiss Daniel issue.

There has been a lot of misinformation in the media as to the background of Kiss Daniel’s wrongful exit from G-Worldwide Entertainment; firstly the management of G-Worldwide Entertainment wishes to state it had never been its intention to seek legal redress, nor join issues with an artist who we fear is being given bad legal advice. However, we feel it is important that we set the records straight for the benefit of the general public and others who are interested in knowing the truth.

We would like to reiterate that our organization’s sole mission is to scout, develop and promote artists till the point where both partners become profitable and the artiste can then decide to continue their creative journey as they deem fit. Contrary to widespread insinuations (and though we love a good joke) we are not a slave camp and we have no time whatsoever held any of the talents on our roster against their will.

The issue of restrictions on collaboration by our artists is one which has been well flogged and one we will address immediately – our management policy is unique in that we look for innovative ways to position our artists to build and own their sound and brands before seeking to collaborate with artists from other labels. To make this work, we train and develop our artists in a way that ensures that their first albums are well composed and delivered in a way that gives them the platform to sell their art as strong individual brands. This strategy is not without its results as is evident from Kiss Daniel’s debut album “New Era” receiving many positive reviews and landing the 8th place on the Billboard’s World Album Chart within a week of release. The Nigerian music industry is very competitive, and as such, it is pertinent that players in the market develop unique strategies to break in and remain relevant.

The New Era album of Kiss Daniel therefore only contained collaborative efforts with his label mate Sugarboy. However, on the soon to be released album ‘Evolution’ by Kiss Daniel, we have worked with other talents such as Phyno and Olamide. Sugarboy has also collaborated with Y-Cee on a song due to be released in January 2018.

There have also been issues raised that the company has not made available its books of accounts to Kiss Daniel, leading to him filing an action at the Lagos State High Court seeking an order granting him access to the books of the company. Whilst our lawyers have filed the necessary papers to strike out the suit, it is pertinent that we briefly note that at no time have we denied the artiste or his lawyers access to our books. With the facts we have, it is our belief that the suit is a ploy to misdirect the public away from his untimely and unlawful exit from the company. The label has records of email correspondence with Kiss Daniel where he and his representatives at different times requested for books of the company and same were supplied to them. All these have been placed before the court in response to the suit filed by the artist at the Lagos State High Court. Until now neither he nor his representatives have responded to papers filed challenging the competence of that suit. Sadly too, even though Kiss complained about access, in another breath he has admitted the audits held by his accountants and the label’s accountant.

Apart from the above, there have been rumours that Kiss Daniel has been on a monthly stipend of NGN 50,000 (Another great joke if we ever heard one). It is a known fact that such amounts will be insufficient to find and retain a decent apartment in Lagos nor cater for the lifestyle of any Nigerian celebrity. Kiss Daniel, contrary to that rumour, has received substantial allowances over the last two and half years. In 2013, he was offered a 360 deal, and the terms of the initial contract have been reviewed twice in his favour, whilst the company has had to bankroll obligations relating to advertising, promotions, music production, videos, trips, wardrobe etc. at different times. Indeed, the company has been quite flexible with our remuneration policies with the belief that he will be able to build a solid financial base for himself. For the avoidance of doubt the following are some details of how the label catered for his financial needs as well as his personal welfare:

1. Contrary to rumours making the rounds that Kiss Daniel was only on NGN 30,000 salary since he joined the label up until after the release of the Woju and Laye singles, this is nothing but falsehood. Before the release of those singles in 2014, Kiss Daniel was being paid a monthly allowance of NGN 30,000 to cover basic personal costs whilst he was still in his father’s house in Kuto, Abeokuta, he was also given a medical allowance of NGN 150,000 and other unrecorded stipends whilst no revenue was being generated by him. This remained the norm while the label invested heavily in recording sessions, productions, transportation, and other costs associated with developing him as an artist.

2. Loans of up to NGN 550,000 were given to him within 2 weeks of his signing onto the label for him to get a car for his mom to start a Taxi business. There are documents to back this. In addition following his request for financial support for his dad’s burial, G-Worldwide released the sum of NGN 200,000 to him which was exactly what Kiss Daniel requested for. As recent as October 2017, he again requested for a loan to run his account in order to acquire a house for himself under a mortgage, to this end the company released NGN 13,000,000 (Thirteen Million Naira) to him though the company was not obligated under the contract to do so.