Award-winning hip-hop muso AKA will not contest in the SA Music Awards (Samas) 2018 Hip-Hop Album of the Year category after the Recording Industry of SA (Risa) rejected an attempt by his record label Universal to submit his entry late.

Their attempt was unanimously sneezed at by the Risa board members who said they would set a bad precedent and open themselves to accusations of preferential treatment if they accepted the late entry.

Risa CEO Nhlanhla Sibisi said: "The board felt that we would be setting a wrong precedent if we allowed him to contest in the category. The mistake was made by his record label because when they submitted his entries for other categories they forgot to do so for that category," he said.

Universal managing director Sipho Dlamini said they, together with Risa, drafted a joint statement about the matter and promised to send it to us.

But he reneged on his promise and said the views of Sibisi represented those of his record label.

Former Universal boss Dharam Sewraj added: "They have failed to take care of AKA. How can they do that to a big artist like AKA? I agree with the decision taken by Risa. They did the right thing by refusing to bend the rules to accommodate him because that would have set a bad precedent. Universal must take full responsibility for failing to look after AKA," he said.

Attempts to get comment from AKA drew a blank.