Music Labels Vs Artistes, When Will the Fights End?

Recently, singer Madrina (formerly Cynthia Morgan) granted a tell-all interview, where she narrated her many travails in the hands of Jude Okoye, the proprietor of Northside Music Inc., a record label that discovered and signed her on a contract. In the interview, Madrina opened up on her fallout with the music executive, saying she lost everything to him, including her VEVO account, and royalties.

According to the dancehall star who had been missing from the music scene for a number of years, Okoye wrecked her career by not promoting her and at the same time stopping her from using her stage name (Cynthia Morgan).

“I went through a lot as Cynthia Morgan that a lot of people didn’t know about,” Madrina who shot into limelight following the release of Don’t Break My Heart and Lead Me On, both of which received massive airplay and positive reviews from critics, told former Miss Globe Nigeria, Sandra Ogbebor, in the chat.

Shortly after Madrina’s claim, another singer, May D weighed into the controversy, narrating how Okoye and his two brothers (the defunct Psquare group), unfairly treated him when he was with them. Shedding light on what transpired between him, Okoye, and Psquare, the Gat Me High singer said in a live chat on Instagram that Okoye and his brothers didn’t want a contract with him at first.

May D alleged that they never believed he could do well as a musician and as a result, were only willing to help him with their platform without a contract. He claimed further that when he rose to fame, Okoye and Psquare suddenly wanted a contract with him, thereby pushing aggressively for a label deal, which didn’t sit well with him.

“I had a couple of deals with Akon in America, they knew about it and didn’t want me to pull out with those deals. At the end of the day, everything went down the hill then,” May D added.

Okoye has however told his own side of the story. Denying the allegations made against him by Madrina and May D, Okoye alleged that the former owes him N40 million that he never recouped.  Explaining how some of that money was spent, he said he shot 13 videos worth N3 million each, bought her a Range Rover vehicle, and gave her money to buy land for her mother.

While maintaining that Madrina burned all the bridges he built for her, Jude Okoye lamented how she once questioned his value in her life. “Cynthia Morgan looked me in the eye and asked me ‘what the f**k have you done for me?”

Addressing May D’s allegations, Okoye said he spent over a hundred thousand dollars on the singer and that trouble began after he offered him a contract. According to him, May D came back after two weeks of having the contract, stating that there were no incentives in the deal. Okoye said May D had demanded a car and an apartment in Lekki despite the fact that the singer was still up-and-coming and had not done any shows. He explained that he and his brothers were uncomfortable with this request and this was when all hell went loose.

Recurring bitter divorces in Nigeria’s music industry

However, the artiste/record label feud, which has always been messy and irreconcilable is indeed historical. Nigerian musicians have always had problems with record labels that discovered and brought them to the spotlight, such that record labels’ disputes with artistes have become all too common in the Nigerian music scene. 

In 1974, Chief Bolarinwa Abioro, then Chairman of African Songs Limited and Take Your Choice Records Store Limited, took his star musician, Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye otherwise known as King Sunny Ade also known as KSA, to court. eelive.ng learnt that at the time, Abioro and Adegeye were inseparable. The singer and businessman had a father/son like relationship to the envy of most observers.

The artiste, then simply known as Sunny Ade had signed a five-year contract with the two recording companies, owned by Abioro but went ahead to release an album titled Ekilo Fome under his Sigma Disc label. The juju music maestro was able to win the hearts of many Nigerians with the project, but not that of Abioro, as the latter saw his action as a breach of a subsisting contract with his labels. Their disagreement led to a legal battle that lasted nearly 40 years. Although, KSA eventually won the case, having claimed his contract with Abioro had expired before Ekilo Fomode was dropped.

A similar occurrence took place with alternative singer Brymo, who was a leading artiste with Chocolate City Entertainment. He became the fans’ favourite after the release of Ice Prince’s Oleku. His relationship with the record label soon went on a downward spiral and ended with both parties dragging each other through the mud on social media.

READ ALSO: Brymo: ‘I’m Africa’s Finest Artiste Alive’

When the singer announced that he had left Chocolate City, the label tackled him, stating that he still had an existing contract. Although, they both strived to do some damage control; the business relationship had sunk too low for a  rescue at the time.

Afro-pop star, Wizkid is another artiste whose breakout from a record label can’t be forgotten anytime soon. Signed to the  Banky W and Tunde Demuren-led Empire Mates Entertainment (EME), the Holla At Your Boy singer was purportedly offered 25 percent of his earnings under the label. While 75 percent was for the label, Wizkid only had to settle with the 25 percent.

After four years of endurance, the artiste reportedly pressed for a review of the contract, which subsequently prompted him to found his own imprint, StarBoy.

Like Banky W and Demuren, Festus Ehimare, the founder and CEO of G-Worldwide Entertainment, must have thought he struck enduring gold when he signed Kizz Daniel. His relationship with the singer was going smoothly until Kizz Daniel reportedly began to feel that Ehimare was taking a lion’s share of the fruits of his labour. The Woju crooner announced that he was no longer signed to Ehimare’s G-Worldwide and floated his own label, Flyboy Inc.

This development saw him change his stage name from Kiss Daniel ostensibly because G-Worldwide had legal ownership of it. Considering that his contract was yet to elapse at the time he quit his relationship, G-Worldwide took the singer to court, and even at the time of filing this report, their legal battle is still ongoing.

Why All These Feuds?

Music enthusiasts in Nigeria agree that the industry has grown in leaps and bounds over the past decades, a result of which has made many Nigerian artistes the toast of Africa, and many parts of the world. Yet the lack of structure, which leads to frequent altercations and broken relationships between artistes and labels, limit prospects.

While some stakeholders blame labels for being greedy, others are of the opinion that artistes are always in haste to enter contract agreements that won’t favour them in the long run.

Speaking on the lingering issue in an Instagram live session spearheaded by Made Men Music Group (MMMG) boss, Ubi Franklin,  co-founder and President of Chocolate City Entertainment, Audu Maikori said it is the fault of record labels because they do not make their contracts flexible enough to accommodate the growth of their artistes.

READ ALSO: Revealed: Secret Pains of Music Producers in Nigeria

“Put yourself in the artiste’s position, you have a hundred thousand streams of download after your first song and you’re still not driving and someone is offering to take you to Bentley standard. Would you stay and be driving your okada because you want to stay through to a contract?” he explained.

Joining Maikori on the conversation tagged –Why Record Labels & Artistes Fail, singer Kingsley Okonkwo aka Kcee, said many artistes are too eager and excited to get signed onto labels. Thus, they pay little or no attention to the content of their contract. According to the Limpopo crooner, many artistes in Nigeria are not patient enough to understand what is expected of them, as well as what they should expect; “so they believe it is going to be a smooth ride all through.”

Echoing Kcee’s expressed thoughts, Paul Okoye aka Rudeboy of the defunct Psquare, who also spoke on the live session, said impatience and greed are the major reasons why many artistes fall out with their record labels. He added that artistes have so many expectations of getting signed on in Nigeria. Rudeboy’s words; “Somebody like me that came from nothing will be expecting that signing a contract means he can start driving exotic cars and shutting down clubs. If this is not happening fast for them, they begin to look for bigger deals elsewhere, with the mindset that their label is not doing them well.”

Here is What To Do?

For Maikori, it is more on the side of record labels to avoid strained relationships with their artistes. According to the music executive, record labels should consider going into partnership with their artistes to build a larger entity, which he said could give them a ‘bigger pie’ to share.

“Chocolate City is still existing 15 years after, the longest ever, because of partnership. It is not because I was a genius or because it is my company. There were many times the label almost collapsed, it was because there was a partnership of many people plus the vision of other people that we’re still alive,” he stated.

Unlike Maikori, Kcee said artistes need to understand that music is a business, adding that they need to seek for knowledge to boost their intellectual capacity to function under any record label. In his submission, the Five Star Music artiste maintained that educating artistes beyond knowing how to sing should be held sacrosanct before they are signed by any record label.