Afrobeats star Qing Madi has accused her former label manager, Joy Tongo, of forgery, theft, and sabotage after multiple tracks from her Barely Legal EP were removed from Spotify. Tongo has denied the allegations, stating that legal issues between the parties remain unresolved.
The 19-year-old singer expressed her frustration during a TikTok Live session on Wednesday night, directly pointing at Tongo, who previously managed Cynthia Morgan. Madi accused Tongo of stealing, forging her signature, and systematically interfering with her music career.
Allegations of Forgery and Legal Disputes
“She stole from me. She did a bunch of weird things, forging my signature… there are things I don't want to mention here so I don't get emotional,” Madi said during the live broadcast. “She sued me for $2 million and she lost the case.” Madi added that because she was under 18 at the time of the lawsuit, her mother had to appear in court alongside her.
The removal of songs from Spotify is not an isolated incident. Earlier, Madi’s single ‘Pepper Me’ was taken down from the platform. She and her team successfully proved that the removal was illegal and had the song reinstated, only for the Barely Legal EP to be targeted next.
“You took down ‘Pepper Me’, I said alright, bet. After we proved it was an illegal takedown, they went through the corners to take down this project,” Madi said. “What in the world is the problem? How are you fighting with a kid?”
Previous Warnings and Parallels with Cynthia Morgan
This is not the first time Madi has raised concerns. In April, she posted on Instagram accusing the same label of attempting to silence her, drawing explicit parallels with Cynthia Morgan’s widely documented experience with the same management.
“My ex label, the same people that tried to destroy Cynthia Morgan, are trying to do the same to me,” she wrote. She also alleged that her song ‘KFMD’ was removed from Spotify specifically because it was performing well. In the same post, she addressed Tongo directly: “I just want to do music, that's all, but you want to play dirty. I'm 19 years old. Let me be.”
Joy Tongo Responds
Joy Tongo has since posted her own account on Instagram Stories, pushing back on Madi’s version of events. She dismissed the age argument, stating that youth was not an excuse for what she described as lawlessness and lies, and said she would be pursuing legal remedies.
On the question of the court case Madi claims to have won, Tongo was direct: “What case have you won? Because last time I checked, the case still hasn't gotten to trial.” She also claimed that an existing injunction ruling was the reason a formal legal takedown had not been issued, framing the Spotify removals as operating within a different mechanism entirely.
The dispute is now fully public, with both sides offering conflicting accounts of what has happened in court and what is driving the takedowns. Barely Legal remains affected on Spotify at the time of writing.
