Prince Kaybee Said He Left Universal in 2023. His Next Two Labels Were Inside Its Orbit.

Prince Kaybee’s split from Universal Music in 2023 was not a clean exit: the termination letter that ended his recording agreement expressly kept Universal in the money, stating the label “shall continue to commercially exploit the recordings, account and make payment (if due) to you in terms of the Agreement.” Three weeks later he signed with Ingrooves, the distributor Universal Music Group has owned since 2019 and which operates in South Africa through Electromode, the same company Universal’s own artists route through. The first label change that actually moved him outside Universal’s corporate structure came in June 2026, to the UK-registered PLAYY. Music Group, whose own 2026 releases now carry a different copyright line than his 2024 and 2025 self-released singles did.

The 2023 split that was not a clean exit

Prince Kaybee, the South African DJ and producer born Kabelo Motsamai, announced in April 2023 that his recording agreement with Universal Music had ended. The termination letter he shared described the end of the relationship in specific terms: the parties “agreed to mutually terminate the Agreement with effect from 3 April 2023” and Universal “releases you from the delivery of any further recording in terms of the Agreement.” The same letter immediately qualifies what that release does not cover, stating that Universal “shall continue to commercially exploit the recordings, account and make payment (if due) to you in terms of the Agreement.” That is a termination of his obligation to deliver new music, not a transfer or reversion of the recordings he had already delivered. Universal kept the right to exploit that catalogue and kept the obligation to pay him for it.

A separate report on the same split put a date on the underlying agreement that complicates Prince Kaybee’s own account of the relationship’s length. He described an eight-year relationship with Universal, which would place its start around 2015. The joint venture agreement that the termination letter ended, however, is dated 3 February 2022, and the report names Kabelo Motsamai as the signatory. Neither source resolves the gap between an eight-year relationship and a contract dated roughly fourteen months before it ended; this record treats the two as describing different things, an ongoing working relationship and a specific written agreement, without assuming one supersedes the other.

Where the recordings actually went

Six weeks after the termination became effective, trade press reported that Prince Kaybee had signed with Ingrooves, with Ingrooves’ own account on social media welcoming him “to the Ingrooves family.” The same report states that Ingrooves had acquired Electromode, a South African distributor, in January 2021. Universal Music Group’s own newsroom material describes Ingrooves as a company it has owned since 2019: “Acquired by UMG in 2019, Ingrooves is a leader in music distribution, marketing and technology.” Industry press covering a later rebrand puts the same chain in one sentence: Electromode “was acquired by Ingrooves in 2021 and began rebranding as Virgin Music Group in late 2023,” and another trade report states plainly that “Electromode was acquired in January 2021 by Universal Music Group-owned Ingrooves Music Group, which is now Virgin Music Group.”

Put together, those four documents describe one continuous ownership line: Universal Music Group has owned Ingrooves since 2019; Ingrooves acquired Electromode, the South African distributor, in 2021; Ingrooves itself was later rebranded as Virgin Music Group. When Prince Kaybee signed with Ingrooves in May 2023, six weeks after his Universal termination took effect, he moved to a company inside Universal’s own ownership structure, not away from it. No source states that his new agreement named Universal, Electromode or Virgin Music Group as a party, and none discloses its terms; the documents establish the corporate relationship between the company he left and the one he joined next, not the content of the new contract.

A report from the weeks before the termination quotes Prince Kaybee saying the parties still had paperwork to finish: “There are a few clauses we have to amend in the contract and it’s looking good.” That statement predates the April 2023 termination letter and describes the agreement then still in force, not the later Ingrooves signing.

What actually left Universal’s orbit, and when

The first change this desk can document that places Prince Kaybee outside any company Universal Music Group owns or has owned is his June 2026 signing to PLAYY. Records, described in trade coverage as “international electronic music label PLAYY. Records.” No report discloses a deal type, a rights split or any financial term. What can be checked independently is the copyright line on the recordings themselves. His 2024 and 2025 self-released singles, made after the Ingrooves period, carry the phonogram credit “℗ Prince Kaybee,” meaning he held the sound recording copyright himself. His first release after the PLAYY signing, “Heno Babayo,” and a second 2026 release, “Veliry,” both carry a different credit: “℗ 2026 PLAYY. Records.” That is a change in who the metadata names as rightsholder, from the artist to the new label, coinciding with the signing.

PLAYY. Records itself resolves to a specific UK-registered company that was not public information when this desk first profiled the label. PLAYY. MUSIC GROUP LIMITED, company number 16678552, was incorporated on 28 August 2025 and is listed as Active on the UK’s Companies House register, with its registered office at 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE, under SIC code 59200, sound recording and music publishing activities. The register names one officer, Warren John Morris, a British director appointed on the company’s incorporation date and resident in South Africa, who also holds persons-with-significant-control status: more than 75% of shares, more than 75% of voting rights, and the right to appoint or remove directors, all notified as of incorporation. Its confirmation statement, the routine annual filing that confirms the register’s accuracy, was due 10 September 2026 and had not been filed as of this review. That is an administrative lapse, not evidence of financial distress, and this desk found nothing else on the public record to suggest otherwise.

Companies House’s officer search also returns a second Warren Morris record sharing the same birth month, October 1974, registered at a different London address with three appointments at companies now dissolved: Eventground Limited, Mediaground Limited and Globalnet Records Limited. Whether that is the same Warren John Morris who directs PLAYY. Music Group Limited cannot be established from the register alone, since Companies House does not expose a unique person identifier that would settle it, and this record does not merge the two.

What this means for artists

A termination announcement and a rights reversion are not the same event, and Prince Kaybee’s own termination letter is explicit about the difference: ending his obligation to deliver new recordings did not end Universal’s right to exploit and account for the recordings he had already made. Any artist reading a termination letter needs to check which clauses actually survive it, because the right most artists assume ends with a label relationship, continued exploitation of existing masters, is often the one the label is least willing to give up.

The move to Ingrooves is a second lesson in the same vein: a change of label name is not necessarily a change of ultimate owner. Ingrooves’ welcome message named the distributor, not Universal Music Group, and most coverage did the same; checking only the new company’s name, without tracing who owns it, would suggest Prince Kaybee left Universal’s structure in 2023 when the documents show he had not. The copyright line on a release is one of the few public, checkable markers of where sound recording rights sit, and the shift from “℗ Prince Kaybee” to “℗ 2026 PLAYY. Records” is the clearest documentary sign this desk found that he had, by 2026, moved those specific recordings’ rights to a company outside Universal’s structure.

What is not established

NO SOURCE DISCLOSES THE TERMS OF THE INGROOVES AGREEMENT. No report gives a rights split, a royalty rate, a term or a territory for the May 2023 signing. This record does not estimate any of them.

NO SOURCE DISCLOSES THE TERMS OF THE PLAYY. RECORDS AGREEMENT. Trade coverage of the June 2026 signing names the label and quotes Prince Kaybee on his reasons for moving, but no financial or rights term is disclosed.

THE GAP BETWEEN AN “EIGHT-YEAR RELATIONSHIP” AND A CONTRACT DATED 3 FEBRUARY 2022 IS NOT RESOLVED. Prince Kaybee’s own account of an eight-year relationship with Universal would date its start to roughly 2015; the joint venture agreement his termination letter ended is dated February 2022. No source reconciles an earlier working relationship, if one existed, with that written agreement.

WHETHER THE TWO COMPANIES HOUSE RECORDS FOR “WARREN MORRIS” DESCRIBE ONE PERSON OR TWO IS NOT ESTABLISHED. Both share a birth month of October 1974. One is the sole director and controlling shareholder of PLAYY. Music Group Limited; the other held three now-dissolved directorships at a different London address. The public register does not carry a unique person identifier that would confirm or rule out a match, and this desk did not find one.

WHETHER PLAYY. MUSIC GROUP LIMITED IS THE SAME LEGAL ENTITY AS “PLAYY. RECORDS” OR “THE PLAYGROUND,” THE BRAND’S OWN NAME FOR ITSELF, IS NOT FULLY ESTABLISHED. The company’s SIC classification and incorporation date are consistent with a music label launched around the time coverage describes, but no document reviewed states the trading name and the registered company name refer to the same operation in so many words.

WHY THE COMPANY’S CONFIRMATION STATEMENT WAS OVERDUE AS OF THIS REVIEW IS NOT ESTABLISHED. Companies House shows it due 10 September 2026 and unfiled. This record treats that as an administrative fact only, not as evidence of the company’s financial condition.