Leading independent American music distribution company EMPIRE announced, on Friday October 14th, that it will be releasing its first-ever African compilation album, Where We Come From (Vol. 1), as a continuation of the increasing popularity of African music in the United States. The album will feature, Kizz Daniel, Fireboy DML, BNXN fka Buju, Olamide, Wande Coal, L.A.X., Navy Kenzo, Tolani, Black Sherif, Leil, and more. Kizz Daniel already dropped the first single Cough (Odo) from the LP, which aims to celebrate and amplify Africa’s rising stars and their music. “For this song, I wanted to highlight the feeling of new love. The song itself is energetic, celebratory and really captures what it’s like to impress someone new,” he said in a statement.
African artists have grown increasingly prominent in the global music scene over the last few years and have gained more notoriety in Western countries with crossover hits such as Wizkid and Tems’ Essence, Fireboy’s Peru, Rema’s Calm Down, and Burna Boy’s Last Last, all of which have charted on Billboard‘s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart at various times. “I feel blessed to have been around so much talent, drive, and creativity all in the same room,” BNXN expressed. “This album is about showcasing the best that Africa has to offer, and we’ve done that.”
Earlier this year EMPIRE added a new division, EMPIRE Africa. Artists on EMPIRE Africa’s roster banded together during a writing camp at EMPIRE’s San Francisco headquarters, where EMPIRE CEO/founder Ghazi says they were “fortunate enough” to record Where We Come From (Vol. 1). “The artists from Africa really transcend where music is today. This is a legendary moment for EMPIRE to be able to share incredible African music with the world,” he continued. This writing camp followed the Austin, Texas performance of artists like BNXN, Fireboy DML, L.A.X., Cheque and Wande Coal, during “The New Africa” showcase at SXSW, which EMPIRE hosted alongside Pandora.
Ezegozie Eze, Jr., VP, Strategy and Market Development – Africa & Diaspora, added “This album is a collective of multi-talented, independent artists, who we’ve partnered with to help create a legacy. Building this brick by brick has allowed us to develop a chemistry between this diverse catalog of African artists and we’re extremely appreciative of the time and dedication it took to put this together.”
EMPIRE Africa globalized EMPIRE’s existing success in America by further highlighting and developing the accomplishments of artists like Fireboy DML, Bnxn fka Buju, Olamide, KiDi, Black Sherif, and Asake. Named as the top label in Nigeria, EMPIRE holds this title by market share and as the top music company with the collective most No. 1’s in Nigeria according to TurnTable Charts, the leading music data provider in Nigeria. Furthermore, artists across EMPIRE’s Africa roster dominated the Top 35 songs on Apple Music’s ‘Nigeria Top Songs’ charts and held the #1 Top Single for over 25 weeks on TurnTable Charts.
The expanding division has seen much recent success with Asake’s Mr. Money With The Vibe becoming the highest charting debut Nigerian album of all time on the Billboard 200 and the biggest Nigerian album in Apple Music history (globally), Fireboy DML becoming the first African artist to perform at the 2022 BET Awards, Kizz Daniel breaking records as most streamed artist on Boomplay, KiDi going platinum in India for his hot single Touch It featuring multi-platinum recording artist Tyga, and Black Sheriff gaining over 75 million digital streams for Kwaku the Traveller in just one month.