Musa Keys Reveals Why He Chooses To Remain An Independent Artist. In the highly competitive amapiano scene, the multi-faceted, trailblazing, and fashionable Johannesburg-based Musa Keys possesses talent and star quality that makes him stand out. The artist born Musa Appreciate Makamu in Giyani and raised in Polokwane, Limpopo, is a triple threat: he produces, DJs, and sings. His live performances are a marriage of these art forms and are usually broken up into two parts.
While most amapiano artists have signed under record labels, Musa Keys says he insists on being an independent artist. “I’m very sceptical of deals because you are basically signing your career away. I’m very hands-on in my career. I wanna know what I’m doing. I don’t want you to have the power to be like ‘you created me’ and then the next thing when I fall I can’t even get back up on my own, because everything was done for me. I wanna know these things.”
“And also, before I start working for white people, let me rather do it myself and see how we manoeuvre so that when I sit down with the people I can then be able to tell them no, I can do that thing on my own. I’m tryna build my brand to a place where I can go back and forth with a big major [record label] and tell them the deal won’t go like this, because it’s not like what you’re doing I can’t do it on my own. The reason you even have a conversation with me is that I’m doing great, I’m on your standard,” he added.
Musa’s ‘TAYO Projects’ has been developing and helping to introduce and establish artists such as Konke, Chley, and Leandra.Vert. Speaking on the plans he has for the label and artists under it, the star said: “The biggest thing for me is breaking every artist in my camp. Breaking them in, and making sure they are nice, man. Like they living large, they are living soft and making them the superstars that they are. Your hand can reach out to a specific end and you then need an extender, and I happen to be that extender.”
“And I’m gonna need an extender, as well, which is why I also get other people involved in the whole TAYO thing. It’s a beautiful independent empire that I’m tryna build. I’m super big on being independent. I know I’m talking about independence but I’m signing people, but their deals are very independent based. They’re more of management deals, we just do record label things because we tryna get the artists to enjoy themselves and make it worth it for them.”
