How Five Star Music lost everyone who worked on 'Limpopo','Pull over'

Once the external symbol of unity, Five Star Music is fast losing its generals which have created a winning team. The label which was created in 2011, had the initial team of Soso Soberekon, Del B, Harrysong and Kcee as the core nucleus of the team. But at the moment, only one remains – Kcee.

Throwback to 2013. Kcee had just scored his hits, ‘Limpopo’ and ‘Pull over’ featuring Wizkid. Those songs were the foundation of his fantastic solo run so far. Del B was the production expert at that time, Harrysong provided support in the studio, Soso Soberekon, who was also a record producer and video director, was the manager of the company. He was the workhorse of the entire label.

That was a winning team, which raised the profile of the record label, contributed to the success of Kcee, and established the label as a formidable working house. In 2014, they signed a new artist, Skiibii Mayana, who is still with the record label.

Del’B

But in 2015, Del’B left. A prominent hit producer Del B, was largely responsible for KCee's chart topping hits including his breakout single as a solo act 'Limpopo'. He produced most of the tracks off his solo debut album 'Take Over' released in November, 2013.

According to reports, the fruitful relationship started turning sour when Del B felt he should be earning more in terms of royalties and production fees for his work with KCee and the music label owned by KCee's producer E-Money.

Apart from financial remuneration, Del B was keen on pursuing his career as an artiste but KCee and the label were not in full support of this. He was replaced by another producer Dr Amir.

Soso Soberekon

Del’B marked the start of the exodus from Five Star music. Up next was Soso Soberekon. The business and talent manager had an interesting relationship with the record label. He handled everything regarding the running of the label, the business deals, value generation, and supervision. Where Kcee was the star, Soso Soberekon was the engine room.

“Soso, handled the work of the label like his life depended on it. He was always on the move.” An associate of the label who asked not to be named told Pulse.

Soso had an interesting relationship with the label. Publicly, he has been fired twice, recalled twice and suspended once by the label in the space of 4 years. He always had ‘issues’ with Five Star Music. In June 2015, news broke that the music manager was fired by KCee.

But that was quickly settled, as the pair pictured soon enough together. Soso also took the blame for Skiibii’s famous ‘death and resurrection’ in September 2015. Information was supplied to Linda Ikeji that Skiibii had lost his life after a collapse. The news flew quickly across social media and was widely reported.

But it turned out Skiibii didn’t die. According to the label, the young singer collapsed due to undisclosed health issues, and Soso Soberekon was blamed for inaccurately reporting Skiibii’s health situation to the media. Kcee revealed during the interview that Soberekon was suspended.

For the first time, he released an apology to the press which read: “With my wealth of experience in the entertainment business, I would like to state that events leading to the above misinformation through my channel was due to a breakdown in communication.

I accept full responsibility and this fell short of the high standard that I have always maintained within the industry, thus the reason why I offer this apology.”

But the suspension didn’t last long. Less than a month later, new photos showed Soso in the thick of a Five Star Music label strategy meeting. Turned out all has become well.

“Soso was never suspended. That was just done for the media. The label needed to do something to appease the public.” A close source told Pulse.

Harrysong

While things appeared rosy, trouble was brewing with Harrysong.

Harrysong who was signed from Question Mark Entertainment had grown considerably since he began working with Five Star Music. In 2013, his song ‘Tribute to Mandela’, which was released in celebration of the late South African president Nelson Mandela was a hit.

The song scored millions of downloads from MTN, making it the most downloaded song on their music streaming platform, Music Plus. To show appreciation, MTN sponsored his trip to the 2014 Grammy Awards in California, USA.

Harrysong also had scored a number of hit songs including ‘Better pikin’, ‘Ofeshe’, and the phenomenal ‘Reggae Blues’ which featured Kcee, Orezi, Iyanya and Olamide. His stock as an artist and songwriter has grown, and there are multiple reports which credit him as the chief songwriter of Five Star Music.

In November 2016, Harrysong announced a departure from Five Star Music. Via social media, Harrysong expressed his displeasure at being underappreciated by the record label, and has moved on to create his music company, AlterPlate.

The singer cited a lack of appreciation from Kcee as his reason for departing the record label.

“What bothers me is not the work, what bothers me is the appreciation.” An emotional Harrysong told PlanetTV. “You are helping someone that knows nothing and the person is feeling like he is helping you, he is not even feeling, he is telling you that he is helping you”.

“You write a song for someone and the person is telling you if I don’t sing your song you don’t blow, it’s childishness, it’s……I don’t know” he added.

Five Star Music initially failed to react publicly. A month later, Kcee and Harrysong appeared to settle their differences when they showed up on stage at The Headies 2016 to give out and receive awards.

“We been dey fight, but it is all settled,” Harrysong said, as they hugged and accepted the award from presenter Uti Nwachukwu.

But things took a new turn in January 2017. Harrysong was arrested and held at the Police Station on allegations of breach of contract. He was later freed, and re-arrested on fresh allegations of forgery. The arrest forced him to settle with the label briefly. But the damage was already done. In his heart, Harrysong who recently became a father of twins,  was no longer with Five Star Music.

In May 2017, he relaunched his company – AlterPlate Music – and granted interviews, revealing that an agreement has been reached with his former employers. He was upbeat and positive, which was a huge contrast to his sour outlook in January.

"I am running Alterplate now. They have given me their blessings and asked me to be free to run Alterplate. I am going to relaunch Alterplate maybe in the next two weeks, we are working towards it."

"We reached this agreement two weeks ago during a dinner (photo above).  I have great respect for them, for them to have done what they did to me to bless my company and say I'm free to go and run my Alterplate, they're good people. Both families are ok now," Harrysong told Pulse.

According to reports, Harrysong still has an existing contract with Five Star Music, although he claims that a mutual agreement has been reached to settle.

His departure meant that only Soso Soberekon was left from the original team which created ‘Limpopo’ and ‘Pull over’. But Soso did not last long after that. His exit was just by the corner.

On June 3, 2017, Kcee announced a new manager on social media. Via Instagram, the singer unveiled Chiedozie Dike, as his new business manager in a move which signified the exit of Soso Soberekon.

“As the label continues to grow, it is also important to grow our man power, skills and improve on our strategy and client relations. In view of this, the label has officially appointed a new manager. Henceforth, all bookings and activities relating to Five star music should be directed to Mr Dike Chidozie.” Kcee wrote and shared a photo of Chiedozie.

Soso Soberekon also confirmed his exit in a statement released to the press. According to Soso, it was his decision to quit the label, and pursue his personal projects.

"Against any unfounded or baseless rumour , I wish to state emphatically that I single handedly took the decision to move on to pursue my dream as an entrepreneur, haven spent over ten years of diligently working with the company.” Soberekon said.

"Without sounding immodest, I make bold to say that, under my watch as General Manager, the company recorded tremendous growth both in profit margin, asset acquisition, etc. As a founding member, through dedication and hard work, I was able to build Five Star into an entertainment brand that is today recognized globally.”

Soberekon has also set up his personal company, White Lion Global, announcing that he will be launching subsidiaries to handle “Talent Management, Celebrity Bookings, Event Management/Project Directing and Multimedia Consultancy.”

Moving On: New Album Alert

With the exit of Soso Soberekon, everyone who worked with Kcee on his “Take Over” album are no more with the label. The singer has plans to release another full-length project at the end of July, with plans already in place to roll-out the project.

His new manager Chiedozie Dike is in charge of the project with an expected release date at the end of July. Already he has released new press photos and a new single titled ‘We go party’, featuring Olamide. A media tour are already planned.

Five Star Music is still home to Skiibii and another artist named Xbusta, who was signed in 2016.