Mavin Records dilemma: Don Jazzy in middle of brewing war between Baby Mavins and Senior Mavins

A year ago, when celebrated record producer Don Jazzy unveiled Korede Bello, Reekado Banks and Di’Ja as the latest sign-ons to his label, Mavin Records, by dropping their singles, African Princess, Turn It Up and Yaro respectively, their unveiling made noise only because they were unveiled by Jazzy whose personality is so enormous it straddles not only Nigeria but Africa as a whole.

However, because they were relatively unknown then, their singles, even though they were produced by the great Jazzy, didn’t make much impact. They got the necessary air play, but they didn’t really break borders and dominate the air waves.

Just a year later, the story has changed for these three youngsters who were immediately tagged Baby Mavins when they were unveiled because musically, they were indeed babies compared to the other Mavin artists, Tiwa Savage, D’Prince, Dr SID.

The way things are right now though, the babies have grown so fast that they now pose a veritable challenge to their seniors.

In fact, Mavin Records must be in a dilemma right now as the unprecedented success of the babies must be causing discord and dissent in their camp right now.

Presently, the babies are dominating the air waves, the charts and the shows. Their seniors, apart from Savage, are nowhere to be found. Bello’s God Win has become a slang, Banks’ Catapult is spreading like wild fire, and Di’Ja’s Awww continues to gain more ground by the second.

The same cannot be said of Dr SID and D’Prince. While Dr SID’s song, Oyari featuring Tiwa Savage, is making some noise, D’Prince cannot really be said to have any song making any sort of impact out there right now.

His last singles, OYO and Ojoro Cancel, are not enjoying the success of his previous singles that include Take Banana, Omoba and Goody Bag.

Savage is the only one of the Senior Mavins who is holding her ground. Her latter singles, My Darling and Key To The City, are doing very well. And she’s also in massive demand for featuring. She’s probably the most featured female artist right now.

Some of the current songs she’s featured on include Pasuma’s Ife, Sean Tizzle’s Igi Orombo, Skuki’s Gbemileke Remix and Dr SID’s Oyari.

While the image the Mavins are presenting to the world right now is that of serenity, you can be sure that behind that facade, a lot of plotting is going on. People are only happy when they are more successful than others so the Baby Mavins success won’t be going down too well with the Senior Mavins as the babies have become so successful that people are not really thinking of some of the seniors again.

Accusing fingers are also being pointed at Jazzy, with some saying he concentrates more on the babies than the seniors, but as Dr Sid himself told E-News too long ago, Jazzy has told Mavin artists that any of them is free to leave any time they want, and what this simply means is that if any of the seniors is not happy with him spending time nurturing the babies, they are free to walk away, no strings attached.

Mind you, Mavin Records is not the first label that will experience such problems. As a matter of fact, Jazzy’s former label, Mo’ Hits, also had such issues.

Then, D’Banj was the label’s most successful artist, and he suddenly found himself challenged by Wande Coal who was the label’s baby then. Coal became so successful that people started to prefer him to D’Banj. But when the label didn’t release Coal’s sophomore album when it should after his extremely successful debut album, his rating dropped and D’Banj was able to maintain his stand as Mo’ Hits biggest artist.

Now that the Senior Mavins are facing the heat from the Baby Mavins, what will be their recourse? Will they sabotage the efforts of the babies, suppress them so that they can continue to thrive?

And in particular, what will Jazzy, the man in the middle, do? Will he be able to satiate the egos of the seniors? Will he also be able to properly advice the babies so that their success won’t go into their heads to the extent that they might even start being rude to the seniors?

This then is the dilemma Jazzy and his Mavin Records are in presently, and we will certainly know soonest how it all plays out for him.