Chronicle Editor
Bruce Ndlovu , Sunday Life Reporter
AT one point, it looked like Nadia Nakai was going to be the only musician that would remain on Cassper Nyovest’s Family Tree stable, as her label mate all left the music mogul.
From Tshego to Gemini Major, Nyovest seemed to be losing the talent that he had helped unearth as he set about establishing an empire that he felt could rival any in the world of South African hip-hop. In recent weeks, however, it has also emerged that the Zimbabwean born Nakai has also joined the exodus from Nyovest, a move that seems to have shaken the roots of one of the few independent music stables south of the Limpopo.
In a podcast interview recently, Nakai addressed rumours that her relationship with Nyovest had soured because of an appearance on rival AKA’s Braai Show. Nakai’s manager is reportedly in a romantic relationship with AKA’s friend, Rich Mahog.
“He (Cassper) didn’t understand the status of the relationship of what was going on. He saw Rich was dating my best friend/manager, obviously Rich is very close to the SupaMega. That wasn’t even the reason why I did the Braai Show because Phindi (her manager/best friend) met Rich when I was doing the Braai Show. It was a decision I made for myself because I felt like I wanted to expand myself.
“Even though he’s my brother and I’ll always support him and I’ll always have his back, I needed to expand myself a little bit more because I need to be seen as somebody that’s platonic. He’s my n*gga and you can never disrespect him in front of me. Even in the interview you can see AKA doesn’t… he’s not spicey, he knows that he can’t go there with me, you can’t disrespect Cass in front of me. It wasn’t that type of nature (the interview),” Nadia said.
Despite their fallout, Nakai said that Nyovest still featured on her latest album, Nadia Naked. She added that his influence on her new album was still palpable. “I value his opinion with music, he was definitely the person that would make me feel comfortable, if he said it was dope then I would trust it. Him going platinum quadruple platinum is not by accident, he’s smart. So, he definitely was a big influence on what made the cut on the album.”
She also revealed that the rapper had let her have Chankura, a song that was supposed to feature in his own album.
“Then Chankura, actually Chankura, I took from his album, I stole that,” the rapper admitted. “It wasn’t even my track but he was doing Amapiano and that hip hop track didn’t fit,” she added.
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