It’s selfish to say an artiste should never leave your label – Richie Mensah – Nsemkeka
The Chief Executive Officer of Lynx Group Limited, the parent company of Lynx Entertainment, Richie Mensah, has stated that it is insensitive for record labels to restrict their signees from exiting.
According to him, labels and artistes work together on a contractual basis; hence, a musician has the right to leave when he or she feels capable of managing their own affairs.
He said this in a recent interview on Joy Prime’s Changes, addressing public concerns about why artistes signed to his record label keep leaving, with specific reference to Eazzy, one of his longest-serving signees, who also exited.
In response to the question of whether he felt tired of Eazzy which was the reason she exited, he said “I never think like that because first of all, it will be selfish to say an artiste should never leave. You know, how a label and artistes contract works is that you put somebody on; you help the person to a point but it gets to a point, they can sort of handle things for themselves. So, they don’t need as much support as they did in the beginning. At that point, it’s now up to them if they want to keep continuing with support or they want to find their own path.”
However, he admitted that it hurts him because he often feels there is still much to be done to support the artiste’s career which he couldn’t accomplish as a manager.
Richie Mensah said he was never shocked by the departure of any of his signees, except for Asem, as he was the first artiste to be signed to the label.
“The one that surprised me the most was Asem because that was the first time it happened.”
But as the business matured, he realised that it was part of the business, and that artisets would always come and go at any time. As a result, he readjusted and prepared himself for such occurrences.