CashTime's future in turmoil

Once the most popular record, merchandise and entertainment company in the country, the future of K.O's CashTime Life seems bleak and shrouded in uncertainty.

Former CEO Thabiso Khati announced this week that he had left CashTime to start his own talent management service, sparking questions about the future and leadership of the company he co-founded with K.O seven years ago .

Speaking to TshisaLIVE, Thabiso said that CashTime would still be run by K.O but would be "dormant".

"It has become a catalogue service now. It exists to manage the material (music and merchandise) that has already been released by the company. It is no longer aggressively chasing deals or pushing new content. Any new content or deals will now come from K.O directly," he explained.

The decision brings an end to an era where the company held much of the country's brightest musical prospects and competed for the signature of the biggest names in the game, including Nasty C. Their dominance also extended to event management and a highly sought after range of merchandise.

A source close to CashTime told TshisaLIVE that the company began to "lose its shine" when young artists Kid X and Nomuzi left the label. The pair both left in 2016 amidst claims that they were not given enough exposure or opportunities to release music during their time at the label. They were followed shortly after by rapper Maggz.

Thabiso acknowledged this criticism but laid the blame for the company's decline on economics.

"Hip-hop has changed and we could not compete economically. I don't think it had to do with us letting certain artists go. I think it was just that we did not have enough money to compete and so we had to slowly pull back and focus on certain aspects of the company instead of everything at once," Thabiso added.

Attempts to contact K.O for comment were unsuccessful but the musician did promise fans a "new side" of himself soon.

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