Singer, Michael Olayinka, popularly known as Ruger, has claimed that he was blacklisted by both fans and music industry practitioners after he left his former record label, Jonzing World, in a controversial manner.

He explained that some fans cancelled him and some of his colleagues distanced themselves from him during the period.

Speaking in a recent episode of the Afrobeats Intelligence podcast, Ruger said, “After leaving the label [Jonzing World], there were a lot of comments about it. Some people were saying, ‘This is the last year you’re going to tour’, ‘This is the end’, ‘You’re finished’, this and that.

“Not everybody were willing to help me because the public sentiment once you leave a label in Nigeria is that you are ungrateful. Many people don’t want to associate with that person, even those in the same industry. It happens.”

On how he bounced back, the singer said, “I was battling cancel culture. I had to meet a lot of people and reintroduce myself. I was doing a lot of things from the scratch. It’s stressful, I’m not going to lie. It’s not easy to leave a label. You have to build your own system. It was just like starting everything over again. But because I was strong inside -I was also down but I was still strong- I triumphed.”

Ruger exited Jonzing World in 2024 to start his own outfit, Blown Boy Entertainment, following a fallout with his record label boss D’Prince.