Almost like it was pre-arranged, February has been a month that has already brought two very significant shake-ups in our industry. Joeboy announced his separation from emPawa, the Mr. Eazi-owned record label, on the second of February. A few days later, Ruger, accompanied with a lot less pomp or publicity, announced that had severed relations with D’Prince’s Jonzing World. Both artists immediately announced their self-owned labels: Joeboy calls his new creation Young Legend, while Ruger established Blown Boy Records. At pivotal moments of their careers, two of Nigeria’s brightest, and perhaps undervalued stars are making the decision to strike out individually, leaving the comforts of the record labels that discovered and established them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2_6C6poa-U/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
No artist quits a creatively and financially rewarding relationship. It can be assumed that some dissatisfaction with their previous arrangements must have constituted grounds for parting ways with them, or at least pushed them to a headspace where they started to consider the merits of stepping out on their own. An examination of the artists’ trajectories over the last few years presents evidence for this, especially when placed side-by-side with their peers. Joeboy broke out with the class of 2019 stars, that promising band that also included Rema and Fireboy. Entering into the pandemic, this trio of dread-sporting singers were armed with euphonious vocals and an affinity for the romantic, and they were tipped to stand beside the biggest in the industry, or even replace them if they became complacent.
Five years later, those predictions have held up reasonably well, but where once they were a barely distinguishable group of newly minted stars set to take over, gaps have now opened up that are wide enough to stratify them. Joeboy’s once-contemporaries have shifted into new gear internationally, propelled by global hits with global superstars. Fireboy’s Peru was helped on by Ed Sheeran into a Hot 100 placement; Rema recruited Selena Gomez for the billion-dollar Calm Down; even Oxlade and Ckay, relatively newer entrants, have earned global recognition with Love Nwantiti and KU LO SA. In contrast, Joeboy’s biggest track, Sip (Alcohol), could not cross trans-Atlantic borders even though a well-picked, well-timed international feature for this track (or any of his other releases) could have been his key to a share of the global market.
In some ways, it feels like Joeboy has navigated the last few years of his career solo. Granted, emPawa Africa has housed him for the last six years, and even the singer would be the first to admit he might not have a career if not for Mr. Eazi’s mentorship. But artist careers come in stages, and sometimes, a record label may not be equipped to handle all of them to an extent that extracts the best for the artist in every position. EmPawa prides itself as a talent incubator that supports artists in their nascency, a model that immensely benefited a 20-year-old Joeboy looking to earn a spot in Lagos’ line-up, but now seems ill-matched to support an artist trying to substantiate a shaky position in Nigeria’s elite and use it as a springboard to participate in Afropop’s global flight.
When these mismatches happen, an artist grows faster than their breakthrough label, several options are available to both parties. The increasingly popular solution comes from international joint ventures, where a label partners with a bigger foreign organization, granting its artist a path to that market while holding on to local distribution—like Chocolate City with Warner, or YBNL and EMPIRE. At emPawa, though, the standards may have been set lower. In a recent interview, label honcho Mr. Eazi extols Joeboy’s qualities and brags about his wins, mentioning that one time Joeboy and Mr. Eazi were forced to use legal and public means to get Bad Bunny to credit Joeboy for sampling his song. He mouths this off as a thing of pride—this semi-accidental, serendipitous means by which Joeboy got to Bad Bunny’s album, but it isn’t, especially in an industry where younger stars are consistently pulling features of that class without fuss. Post-emPawa, Joeboy will attempt to create for himself the ideal platform—Warner Music for a second chance at a serious international career, and his newly-formed Young Legend records to hold down the Nigerian base and perhaps, begin to mentor younger talent. It is a system that has served BNXN (EMPIRE/ TYE Entertainment) for the last few years to considerable success, and there is no reason it shouldn’t do the same for Joeboy.
All of this, however, makes Ruger’s move a little less understandable and distinguishes it significantly. In the column that has Joeboy filled with Warner Music, a question mark still remains for Ruger, suggesting that there is still a part to his story left to tell. He is currently pushing Blown Boy Entertainment and is already promoting it with a Blownboy Freestyle that speaks about denouncing loyalties to godfathers and breaking chains—most likely drumming controversy to increase visibility, but perhaps not without a certain measure of truth. Ruger’s history bears many similarities to Joeboy’s—he was also once a highly rated debutant, after his Pandemic EP burned his name in the hearts of Nigerians wading through a real-life pandemic.
Three years later, there is a conversation to be had on whether Ruger has fulfilled that potential. Or, more cynically, whether he has been given the right tools to. His former record label, Jonzing, was essential to his breakout; Ruger has credited D’Prince with discovering him, helping with his growth, even providing his stage name. In recent times, however, he appears to have been left to fend for himself, especially after his recent project did not get the mainstream acknowledgment it needed. In late 2022, Ruger and fellow artist BNXN were engrossed in an ego-measuring contest on Twitter over who was greater, prompting fans to wade into a debate that was generally regarded as too close to call. Fast-forward a year later and the conversation appears over. Both artists released excellent debut albums: BNXN logged in Sincerely, BNXN a month after Ruger’s Ru The World debuted late last year. However, in a turn of events that cannot be solely attributed to the albums’ qualities, Ruger’s project currently sits seventy places off BNXN’s on Turntable’s Top Albums chart.
In comparison to their contemporaries, the labels that provided Ruger and Joeboy with seats at the table now hold them back from advancing to the next phase. It would, however, be very naive to believe that these divorces will have only an upside to it; sometimes an artist may not realize just how influential a record label was until that link has been severed. This scenario is more likely to play out when the artist breaks out to become independent—YBNL’s Lil Kesh and Mavins Reekado Banks are examples of artists that stepped out of a label to stand on their own, and then struggled to find their footing for a while.
So beyond independence, what Ruger and Joeboy hope to attain is ownership. To take a firmer grasp on the reins of their careers, and steer themselves towards the level that they should be. It is a significant risk, Ruger admits as much in the statement that confirmed his exit, but it may be a necessary one to take at this stage of his career. Every week the horizon broadens for what is possible for Nigerian artists—someone is performing on a new iconic stage, winning prestigious music awards, or breaking records for streaming figures. The artists that claim these wins though, have not only the talent to attain the milestones but solid backing from major movers in the industry. Ruger and Joeboy indisputably possess the former, so they will hope that their plays in the last few weeks grant them the platforms to attain the heights they always tipped to have.