The music industry is often described as 'cut throat' which is not designed for the faint hearted. Many musos often speak of their transgressions, well, at least the brave ones, and you sometimes never hear of them ever again.
Remember the 2013 banger Xigubu? With it's success, and the noise it made when it was released, one would think the voice behind the hit single would be raking in coins. But, sadly, Fiesta Black, does not recall ever getting paid a fair amount for her work while signed under Ganyani Entertainment.
Fiesta Black, real name Thandi Nakampe Mokgoankgoa, was a guest on MacG's Podcast And Chill and she shed a tear when speaking about being signed under DJ Ganyani's record label, Ganyani Entertainment.
Fiesta Black broke into the music scene with Ganyani's smash hit Xigubu but after that people forgot about her. Fast forward to 2017, she returned to the spotlight while signed under Muthaland Entertainment and worked on new music but Fiesta, according to her, still lives in a shack in Orange Farm.
Explaining what that track means, she said it actually is meaningless. "It means a lot of nothing and a lot of anything."
She said it's a weird song but Xigubu means drums in her native language. And that she wrote it when she was in high school.
Explaining her journey into music, she said she had to sleep in dodgy recording studios and also revealed that she had sex in one of DJ Ganyani's recording studios. But the music boss did not like that and she got into trouble.
But after all that happened, she said they are good but not the way she wants their relationship to be. That's because she has not received the money she felt is right for her especially because Xigubu was a big song. She also said the song was trending two weeks ago on TikTok.
When she made that revelation that she stays in Orange Farm, Sol Phenduka and MacG were shocked but she lashed out at them for even acting surprised because she does not consider herself relevant anymore.
The she went back to the music politics where she described how she had a contract which she never understood but now does. Fiesta said she expected to make at least R1 million from the song but got paid way less. The singer never understood that when you write a song, you're actually entitled to 50% of the music rights. But from that 50% she alleged that she only got 32% off the song.
A scared Fiesta said she does not want to talk too much about this but eventually broke down into tears. She said when she was signed under Ganyani she apparently had no set income despite having a lot of gigs per weekend.
"Till this day I do not remember me having a set booking fee, for me where I can say 'this is how much I get,'" she said before breaking down into tears.
After regaining her composure she questioned why she was on Podcast And Chill because she was not ready. Fiesta then said she was in a very dark place, and had turned to alcohol but it made things very worse for her. But now that she has her fire back, she is much better.
