It was in 2017 when Ramadhan Mupende, commonly known as Bad Rama, announced the launch of The Mane music label, which he said was coming to change the music landscape in Rwanda.

With several big names signed to it, including Safi Madiba, Queen Cha and Deborah Uwase, known by the stage name Marina, The Mane started off with a bang. When rapper Jay Polly joined, The Mane became a force to reckon with in the music industry.

It all seemed perfect. In fact, Bad Rama said that The Mane was out to rival Bongo Flava star Diamond Platinumz’s WCB music powerhouse.

Everything looked perfect, hits came out, collaborations here and there. Everything looked to be on track but not all was rosy.

Mupende, on several occasions organised different concerts, investing millions and millions but very often they flopped, leaving him in losses. Cracks started to appear in 2019 when Safi Madiba and later rapper Jay Polly parted ways with the music house.

The ‘Umusaraba wa Joshua’ rapper cited unfulfilled promises and lack of progress in his music as the main reason for departing. Safi’s departure was even more dramatic as the label and the singer feuded over the songs the ‘Hero’ singer had produced which The Mane said belonged to it.

The former Urban Boys' frontman ran to Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and copyrighted the songs, making them his intellectual property. The Mane threatened to sue Safi to refund the money spent on him but eventually they gave up.

Now with the departure of Queen Cha, Marina and the music manager Aristide Gahunzire, The Mane remains with just Calvin Mbanda, who some say is also likely to leave, in the event Bad Rama calls time on the music label, which some say was a burden to him rather than being a profitable business.

Close sources say the muscled man, who also previously had a shot at singing, is likely to have counted his losses and instead relocated to the U.S, where he is rumoured to have a partner and other business interests.

"Bad Rama had saved up a lot of money to start the label. He had always been passionate about music and he wanted to make a difference. Since he could not make it as an artiste, he wanted to fulfil his dream by creating artistes instead but it never worked,” a close friend of Mupende who didn’t want to be named said.

The friend who is privy to the goings-on in the label said that Bad Rama invested a lot of money with no return and it was time to call it quits.

Bad luck or confusion?

It is a case of loving something but it doesn’t love you back. Since launching The Mane records, Bad Rama ventured into a number of things that did not turn out as expected. In 2018, he organised a number of concerts, including one he brought Tanzanian star Harmonize but it flopped.

In December 2018, he organised the Xmas Celebrities and,  the same year, he organised the Kigali Summer Fest but it also didn’t pick up. Mupende said he sunk in as much as Rwf37m in the Summer Fest while in the label, he claims he invested as much as $200,000.

Whether it is true or not, clearly the music industry did not seem to be the right place to invest. He loved it but it didn’t love him back. "Maybe he is just unlucky,” the Friend said, adding also that it could be a case of confusion, putting his tentacles all over the place.

Several showbiz critics attributed his failure to doing too many things at the same time while not mastering any. Beyond music, Bad Rama was into movies, embarking on a project to produce short videos for Youtube but that too didn’t last.

When he left The Mane in December 2018, Jay Polly made several claims, which some said were outlandish but now he seems vindicated. Among other things, he claimed Bad Rama was competing for more visibility than the artistes he was supposed to promote.

The ‘Hisha Munda’ rapper claimed that Bad Rama was keener on promoting his personal image rather than the artistes he signed and that he was not investing as much as he promised while taking on the artistes, which made him uncomfortable.

Whether that was true or not, clearly things were not all glamourous and rosy as they seemed on social media.

Mupende is expected to address everything regarding the fate of The Mane music label on Saturday, May 1, at 8pm CAT. U.S-based radio personality Ally Soudy is set to host him in a press conference to set the record straight.

During the press conference, Mupende says he will announce new projects but for many, it is the end of the road for The Mane.