After a conversation with his maker, Riky Rick said on Monday will not be working with Mabala Noise anymore.
The rapper made headlines and caused much chatter on social media after his Metro FM Awards acceptance speech, during which he dissed radio and the music industry saying that it was rigged in favour of those with money.
"Shout out to all the kids that never get on radio... they can't get their songs played on the radio because they don't have enough money," he said during the speech.
Of course, because Riky Rick was receiving an award that same night, many wondered out aloud if he was part of the system he was calling out, particularly because of lyrics in his award winning song "Sidlukotini" where he raps: "If n*ggaz can pay for these f*cking awards then my n*gga I don't want them..." Riky Rick tweeted these very lyrics after receiving his award. Buying awards clouded this year's Metro FM awards with talk that Ambitiouz Entertainment was using dubious means to get their artists to win.
A series of tweets explain how difficult the last couple of weeks have been for Riky Rick. But we can't tell if he was told to leave the label, or if he decided to do it of his own accord.
Riky Rick never mentions who "they" are but he was a part of record label Mabala Noise owned by Reggie Nkabinde, the man who made a speech after Nasty C accepted his song of the year award. The rapper continued with his statement on Twitter saying "they" would probably spin this to make him seem crazy.
This is not the first time Riky Rick leaves a record label. In 2014, he left hip-hop veteran Tumi Molekane's Motif Records.
We're not sure what this means, but hopefully Riky Rick will be venturing out on his own and doing better by "the kids".
Update: Mabala Noise told the Sowetan their contract with Riky Rick was "still in place". "If you are asking me if the contract has been terminated or there is an amicable split between Riky Rick and the company where we sat down and discussed him leaving, the answer is no there has not been those sort of talks," said the company's head of communication, Mhlo Gumede.