Record labels and their bosses not doing well

There is no doubt that the most popular urban record label in the country presently is Don Jazzy’s Mavin Records. Mavin is the label that has recorded the most number of hit tracks spread across all its artists in the last three years. Such tracks and artists include God Win by Korede Bello; Awww by Di’Ja; Katapot by Reekado Banks; My Darling by Tiwa Savage; Surulere by Dr SID; OYO by D’Prince; and Dorobucci by all Mavin artists aforementioned and their mentor, Jazzy. It’s therefore not surprising that many artists are hoping Jazzy can sign them to Mavin, the same way artists used to want to be signed to Kenny Ogunbge’s Kennis Music when it was the most prominent urban music label in the nation. Nowadays, nobody talks much of Kennis again, and it can be rightly said that Mavin displaced Kennis from its perch atop the music industry. So, Kennis is no longer doing as it used to. But it’s not the only label not doing well. There are many other labels not doing well due to various reasons, most especially of which is that they were established by artists who are doing so well themselves that they concentrate on themselves to the detriment of their artists. The unprecedented success of Kennis and Mavin is because their main men, Keke and Jazzy respectively, are not mainstream artists. They are popular, they are passionate about music, they desired to be mainstream artists themselves but were realistic enough to realize their labels would only be successful if they focused on their artists. So that’s why Mavin is thriving. Jazzy is popular as a singer as well but Mavin is not suffering from his singing because it’s his secondary assignation. His first is the label’s artists. Mavin and Kennis are not the only labels though. Others making some noise include D’Banj’s DB Records, Davido’s HKN Music, P-Square’s Square Records, Darey’s Soul Muzik, Banky W’s EME. All of these others combined have not recorded the success of either Mavin or Kennis. Banky W’s EME has come closest to Mavin, Kennis, but still fell short of meeting up with them. His astute signing of Wizkid is even the only reason it recorded some decent success because he and Wizkid were very successful on the label while Skales recorded mild success. Now, he has Niyola and Shaydee on EME and they are also recording mild, critical success but they need to be really commercial successful as well before EME can be really respected as a prominent label. While EME is even trying its best to prove its worth as a label, Davido’s HKN Music just concentrates on Davido and only makes noise about its artists that include B-Red and Sina Rambo, Davido’s cousins. Though Davido has recorded many smash hits, won many awards, B-Red and Sina Rambo, who have spent a lot of time on HKN, as some other artists have come and gone on it, are only basking in Davido’s limelight and are yet to record any smash hit of theirs. There was a time they threatened to quit HKN, but they ended up staying, and they are still rudderless for now. Though Davido promised some time ago that he would ensure that all his artists blow and become successful in their own right, he’s yet to keep that promise so HKN remains a label not making real impact. Darey’s Soul Muzik is another label not really dictating the pace in the industry. Sadly, its head honcho, Darey, can’t also said to be doing great things musically. Though he tries his best, working with the hottest producers, shooting big budget music videos and all that, he can’t really be said to have made the cut as an artist. Just like their boss, Zaina and Mo Eazy, are also finding it difficult to attain the recording success that would make their label, Soul Muzik, really successful. It’s however not because Darey has held out on them. He’s shot big budget videos for them and all that, but they are not getting something right yet. The problems of Square records owned by P-Square are well documented. They signed artists and wanted to promote them. But when they promoted one of them, May D, and he became really popular and it seemed as if he would steal their thunder, they got cold feet and backed out on her and now there’s no longer any talk of Square Records trying to be a real label with several artists, not just P-Square. Also to be indicted of not running his label properly is D’Banj. When he and Jazzy parted ways, they both established labels and Jazzy’s is doing very well but D’Banj’s is not. Though he has artists that include Tonto Dike, 2Kriss and his junior brother, Kayswitch, on DB Records, the label is not making any real impact as it concentrates mainly on D’Banj and shamelessly does so. Mind though that the labels highlighted here are not the only labels not doing well. They are just some of the ones in some bit of spotlight.