Nairobi News

The Wasafi Festival tour headlined by Diamond Platnumz faced an unexpected setback when a legendary rapper, Juma Nature, failed to appear at the highly anticipated Wasafi Mtwara edition last weekend, despite intense media promotion of the event.

Juma Nature, a legend in the Tanzanian music industry, was among the top artists selected to perform at the event but did not honor the commitment.

It later emerged that Nature’s decision to skip the show was due to what he considered a “disrespectful” payment offer from the event organizers.

In an Instagram post, Juma Nature expressed his frustration, saying, “How do I do a show for Tsh500,000 (approximately Ksh30,000)? Isn’t that being disrespectful to me?” This statement was made in response to a fan’s inquiry about his absence from the show.

However, these claims were met with skepticism, with longtime friend and rapper Chege disputing the authenticity of the post.

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Chege asserted that the comment did not originate from Juma Nature himself but rather from his social media manager.

“Some things don’t just make sense, and people need to question themselves. Who in their right mind would pay such an amount to an artist of that caliber? Even the organizers of the Wasafi show wouldn’t stoop that low. They can’t be that foolish to offer such meager compensation to an artist of that stature. I’m sure it’s not Nature who wrote that comment but someone close to him, because as TNC (Temba Nature and Chege), that’s not our rate card as a group or as individuals,” Chege argued.

Chege further expressed his concerns about Juma Nature’s management team, citing incompetence and a lack of vision.

He emphasized that the team was tarnishing Juma Nature’s brand and that the rapper himself seemed indifferent to the situation.

“Nature is someone I respect very much; he is my brother and, by extension, my family. But what saddens me is his team. They are clueless, incompetent, lack discipline, and lack vision, tarnishing his brand,” Chege remarked.

According to Chege, Juma Nature’s management was giving him misguided advice. He recounted an incident during the Wasafi Tour Mwanza edition when Juma Nature did not demand upfront payment, even though he had not shown up for a prior performance. It was decided that he would be paid upon arrival at the Mtwara venue, which he failed to do.

Chege concluded by stating that although Juma Nature’s actions were not representative of the TNC (Temba Nature and Chege) group as a whole, each individual within the group had a responsibility to protect their own brand.

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