EDIT: Following the posting of this article, Internet Money CEO TheTazTaylor reached out to me to claim that he has been uninvolved with Alamo since January.

Please leave me & @InternetMoney out of all Alamo discussions. I been uninvolved since Jan when i wanted to Sign Tecca & was told no. Anybody unhappy with their deals, etc.. has NOTHING to do with me or internet money. I moved on & am looking forward to what im working on now. — INTERNET MONEY (@TheTazTaylor) July 2, 2019

It’s 2019, and it seems almost weekly you read about a formerly independent artist complaining online about their label deals. The general consensus agrees that signing to a label is a terrible idea—which is true—although that may not always be the case.

Regretfully, many artists on Alamo Records are in that exact predicament: mistreatment and misappropriation from those who were once seen as the game-changer, or the catalyst to take their careers to the next level.

In the past few days, recent underground signee’s Trevor Daniel and Chelji have Tweeted their discontent with their label and its higher-ups… making claims the label is failing to push them as promised and even failing to pay them following the release of overwhelmingly successful projects under the label.

How does one fall into these situations?

For Chelji, an underground princess and soon-to-be superstar, desperation was the factor that now has her regretting one of the most important decisions she’s made in her life thus far.

Originally from the UK, Chelji was quickly rising to underground fame when Grammy Nominated producer Taz Taylor “discovered” her and offered her a life-changing opportunity: a distribution and promotion deal with Alamo Records sub-label Internet Money. In pursuit of stabilizing her career and feeding her family, Chelji came to the USA looking for exactly what Taz was offering her. While in the USA, with the support of her fan-base, she was able to make multiple appearances on adam22‘s channel and relative social media accounts, propelling her into the “mainstream” light of the underground.

Chelji now seems to be stuck in a back-and-forth argument with both Alamo and Internet money, similar to when your dad tells you to ask your mom while your mom tells you to ask your dad. Lacking the support and resources from the label due to pettiness and personal vendettas, she’s in a position where she is legally required to share profits with the label on the basis of the contract, while not receiving the support, promotion, budget, and more promised by the label which promised to set her in motion to become the next Billie Eilish level angsty-superstar she could be.

Like any label or investor, they want to have first-hand ability to make changes and curate the image of the artist they’ve signed to take advantage of what they think is the most marketable aspects of the signee. Despite this, Chelji made it clear before she signed the deal that she would not “sell-out” or become the industry plant they wanted her to become. This has caused an all-out black-balling from the label and label-mates themselves.

Fortunately for Chelji, we’re confident there is and an abundant amount of labels in a bidding war to sign the next female SoundCloud superstar. We’re confident they’re free her from the bars Alamo has restrained her with.

Alongside these issues, Chelji was threatened to have her unreleased music leaked. In order to avoid the leak, she dropped the song herself. The song has been since removed by the label.

We’ve also noticed a huge absence from recent Alamo signee and local legend RIP Matt Black, who had an exciting run with the announcement of his deal and the release Sore Loser music video. We reached out to Matt but have yet to receive comments.

We asked Chelji if there’s anything she could say to upcoming and independent artists about label deals, where she quickly and confidently replied:

I don’t want to speak badly or ignite bad blood with my label, but signing was one of the worst things I’ve ever done… if there is one thing I could say to people who find themselves in my position, it’s simple: DO NOT SIGN.

Familiarize yourself with Chelji by listening to “BAD” with labelmate Trevor Daniel, and be sure to follow her on Twitter to read on developments.

We wish you the best, Chelji.