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Diamond:His fame, wealth and music

Swimming
 Three years on, there is no stopping Diamond whose immense fame has gotten tongues wagging with others linking it to voodoo or black magic.Photo: Courtesy

A story is told of a young man who camped outside a studio for days on end in a bid to have his music recorded.

Despite frustrations and having no money he never gave up his mission and after a while, his music was finally recorded.

It took him close to six years to emerge into the limelight catapulting him to stardom, from then on there was no looking back.

The scenario depicts the real life story of Nasibu Abdul Juma, popularly known as Diamond Platinumz, a once little-known artiste who hailed from a humble family background, born in Dar Es Salaam but raised in Kigoma.

Despite hitting the music jackpot with success, fame and various huge contracts having come his way, it appears singer Diamond has failed to impress a number of musicians – among them Uganda’s Jose Chameleone.

In his recent interview Chamelone dismissed Diamond as a popular, giant artiste in East Africa insinuating that he is overrated

Not only did he challenge Diamond who he described as having nothing to offer in terms of live performances, he is also said to have alluded that he stages sold-out shows in Tanzania, unlike Diamond.

And Chameloene is not alone in igniting war against Diamond. A while back, Bongo artiste Ali Kiba and Diamond were involved in unending beef, which elicited mixed reactions from their fans.

The duo did not see eye-to-eye owing to the beef traced back to a couple of years ago when Ali Kiba accused Diamond of deleting his lyrics in the song Lala Salama and culminated into bad blood between them.

Ali Kiba who describes himself as the best in Bongo and hence his reasons for his longevity and relevance in the East African music scene and beyond portrayed Diamond as a musician who has nothing to show for it.

“I love good music but I can only work with Diamond if he has something valuable and mature to offer in terms of music ,” said Ali Kiba.

Ali Kiba further alluded that he is part of Diamond’s success owing to the fact he gave the latter a chance to record his debut single in 2010 at his Sharobaro Studio of which he is the president alongside Bob Junior. The studio recently celebrated eight years.

“My producer Bob Junior called me while I was on an American tour to seek my permission if he could record Diamond and I agreed to it,” added Ali Kiba.

The musician who has always refused to be compared to Diamond in any way further reveals that they are no longer in touch.

“The fact that he claimed that I looked for him to record my hit Single Boy while in the real sense he asked for it knowing too well that it was a platform for him to climb into the limelight made me angry.”

Ali Kiba further accused Diamond of deliberately deleting his lyrics in the song Lala Salama produced by Manecky, and in turn went ahead to use the same lyrics to release the song that turned out to be huge, pushing Diamond’s music career to a different level.

The real Diamond

Pulse can now reveal that the Diamond who struggled to stardom was hardly known in 2010 even after he released his debut album Kamwambie that turned out to be a flop.

At some point during the initial stages of his career he was forced to impersonate the once popular singer Z-Anto whose song Binti Kiziwi was a club banger.

In one of his interviews he openly admitted to have pretended to be Z-Anto with the help of a friend named Sendinyo, who owned a simcard voucher kiosk in Kariokor area.

“I often sang just like Z-Anto making many people – in particular female fans believe that I was him and in return I got free treats like chips and money from them,” said Diamond.

However the moment Z- Anto’s video was released the truth dawned on his fans and this forced him to make a disappearing act for three weeks for fear of being lynched before he came back.

In 2012 when the Nitampata Wapi singer performed at Big Brother Africa reality series, very few people knew about him, let alone his music.

Even during one of E- Sir’s memorial in Mombasa held a year later nobody seemed to bother with or noticed him for that matter. To many he could easily pass for a fan, a wannabe musician or a groupie.

But three years on, there is no stopping Diamond whose immense fame has gotten tongues wagging with others linking it to voodoo or black magic — something he has vehemently denied terming it a ploy by his rivals to finish him through bad press.

Girls .... Girls...

Just like the saying goes that Diamonds are a girls’ best friend so has singer Diamond been to women.

Other than his well-known ex-girlfriend Wema Sepetu, Diamond has been linked to several women among them Jokate Mwegelo who was once an avid supporter of Ali Kiba and has been rumoured to have had a relationship with both stars.

Jokate whose support for Ali Kiba was at some point not well received by Diamond who in turn posted a diss video of his ex singing and dancing to his music with the captions; “Mbona bado, mtanyooka tu...”. An act that was interpreted by many to mean that even the likes of Jokate and other Ali Kiba supporters would soon appreciate him as king.

Recently Diamond was reported to have had a nasty fight with his baby mama, Uganda’s Zari Hassan, upon their landing at the airport in Sweden during his Sweden tour dubbed ‘From Tandale to the World’.

This was after ardent female fans mobbed the superstar, taking photos with him and hitting on him in the presence of Zari.

A Tanzanian newspaper, reported that the singer was mobbed by a bevy of beautiful women who were obviously star struck. In the melee that followed, the women took time to pose for photos with the star to a point of even hitting on Diamond in front of his wife.

The whole drama irked Zari whose jealousy was evident as the couple made their way to their hotel room.

“The issue was delicate and quite serious. When the couple arrived at their hotel room, they were hardly talking. Were it not for our intervention, the shows Diamond Platnumz was scheduled to stage wouldn’t have taken place. Zari’s jealousy caused quite a stir,” a source close to the Platnumz’ family, who traveled with them, revealed.

The fight was so bad that the couple reportedly slept in separate rooms during the first night of their Sweden tour. The whole drama was solved by Diamond’s mother who sat the couple down and intervened on the growing rift.

According to the source, Zari was convinced that Diamond had a thing with the girls at the airport from way back and that explained the whole excitement thing not to mention the circumstances under which the girls knew of the time when Diamond would arrive at the airport.

“Honestly, I was well received in Sweden. But I won’t disclose much about the fall out with Mama Tiffah (Zari). However, it is normal for long-time lovers to disagree. It is the nature of human beings to at least behave in such a manner – we were created like that,” Diamond said, speaking on the incident.

Today, Diamond who is believed to be one of East Africa’s highest earning and paid artistes in Africa, revealed that his money comes from shows, brand ambassadorial deals, endorsements from various companies like DSTV, Coca-Cola, Uber, and Vodacom. He also says royalties, ringtones and call back tones and numerous awards have earned him lots of money.

The once humble musician, who back in the day with his mother and grandmother were forced to share a single room and rent out the remaining two rooms just to make ends meet, is now earning millions from his music making him one of the most successful singers in East Africa .

With a net worth of a whopping US$4 million(Sh405 million), placing him as one of the wealthiest artistes in Africa, his performances in Tanzania, cost $4,000 (Sh405,000) per show while outside the country it is not less than $25,000 (Sh2.53m) per show, with the best being when he demanded for the huge sum of $100,000 (Sh10.13m) for a performance in Kigali, Rwanda.

And when it comes to collabos Diamond is said to charge $3,000 (Sh304,000) per audio recording and $6,000 (Sh608,000) for a video recording.

On top of all that, Diamond’s wife Zari is a wealthy business woman and their daughter Latifah is already earning her own money through endorsements.

He used Sh4.7 million in face-lifting his family’s old home in Dar-es-Salaam’s Tandale area, in honor of his mother Sanura Kasimu.

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