29/12/2024
It was revealed this week that Asake has left YBNL - the label that turned him into an Afrobeats superstar in two short years.
Born Ololade Ahmed, Asake is not a newbie in the Nigerian music industry. He had hustled underground first as a dancer and as a singer with little success for about 10 years.
In 2022, through the help of his friend, Yhemo Lee, he was introduced to Olamide and everything changed for him.
Olamide publicly co-signed him, deploying every arsenal at his YBNL disposal to make Asake ‘blow’.
Olamide donated a verse to Asake’s first hit ‘Omo Ope’ and tapped Burna boy for a verse on ‘Sungba’ Remix. Olamide brokered the lucrative and effective distribution deal between YBNL and Empire that saw Asake’s stock rise further especially in the UK and the US.
Music videos? Olamide ensured Asake worked with the very best - TG Omori - for most of his videos. TG’s videos are pricey. It was said he charged about $100k for Davido’s ‘Feel’. TG Omori shot 8 videos for Asake.
It was mentioned that Olamide gave Asake an improved deal this year just before his ‘Lungu Boy’ album dropped but Asake refused to sign, walked out of negotiations, choosing to become an independent artiste.
I sensed this was coming.
In my review for ‘Lungu Boy’, I mentioned the conspicuous absence of Olamide’s influence on the album - Olamide had songwriting credits and features on Asake’s previous albums.
I had remarked that something about the album felt hollow and that unlike Asake’s other albums, this one had some fillers. What in the name of music is “Skating, skating, skating?” 🥹
This leads to the big questions.
Does Asake have every right to leave YBNL if his contract has expired? Yes. No be cult him join. And it is not slavery.
Is it morally right for Asake to leave YBNL now that he is a household name globally and the label is poised to earn or continue earning for taking a chance on him? No.
This will be worse if he is forcing an exit - his contract has not expired but he is leveraging his superstar status to push to leave. This may involve trying to buy out the remaining time on contract or find a way to break it. A lot of artistes do this and this can lead to many legal complications - suits and counter-suits.
What many fail to realise is that music business is a gamble. And the worst form of gamble.
For every single artiste that a label helps to ‘blow’, there are several that will not ‘blow’ despite hundreds of millions spent on their career.
How does the label break even and still survive? The winners will fund the losers. And true to type, labels tend to channel their energy and funding more towards the winners.
Before Asake, Olamide has taken a bet on several other artistes around the time he signed Fireboy DML. Picazo Rhap, Limerick, Yomi Blaze, Davolee, Lyta. But it was Fireboy that blew and kept the lights on till Asake came along. And Olamide himself was also actively selling records.
Banky W’s EME had Wizkid, Skales and several others. However, Wizkid was the outsized success.
Don Jazzy has signed a bunch of artistes who didn’t blow. However, the success of the minority can cover for the failure of the majority.
A lot of artistes with Rema’s success would have opted out of their deals. R***r didn’t even have a fraction of that success and left Jonzing after a public spat.
It is fast becoming a thing with upcoming Afrobeats artistes - dishonouring contracts and burning bridges, once they have crossed and feel they have ‘arrived’. It is pathetic as it is sad and has caused a lot of investors to start having second thoughts.
Why spend hundreds of millions of Naira on a gamble you are likely to lose when you can invest it securely? And even when you win this gamble and the artiste is successful, what is the guarantee that they will keep honouring the contract they signed with open eyes and return the funds you invested?
This is one of the reasons why I respect Rema a great deal and believe he will go very far - he never forgets the favour MAVINS did for him and remains teachable. He is playing the long game, learning all he can from Don Jazzy while establishing himself as a global superstar.
Hip-Hop is filled with notable examples of people who navigated these situations well.
When no one would listen to a white rapper, Dr. Dre took a chance on Eminem. Despite his global success, Eminem never left. He built Shady Records inside of Dre’s Aftermath.
When no one would touch 50 Cent because of his chequered, drug-dealing past, Eminem took a chance on him and signed him to Shady-Aftermath. When he ‘blew’, 50 Cent didn’t leave. He rather formed G-Unit within the label.
Over the past two decades, the trio of Dr. Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent have won so much together but must importantly shown that friendship and brotherhood transcends colour, race and perceived success.
As usual, na only when artiste blow everybody go begin chook eye for the percentage of royalties the label is collecting, as if that was not stipulated in the contract.
If an artiste flops, as is often the case, no one accuses the label of ripping them off because, you guessed it, the artiste made no money and left the label in debt. All the millions spent on their unsuccessful career, gone. P**f! Like smoke.
Two years ago, Asake was unknown. Two years later, Olamide has turned him into one of the biggest forces in Afrobeats.
To put this in perspective, no artiste has had that kind of meteoric rise in Afrobeats, ever. No one had gone from underground to A-list, selling out O2 Arenas back to back in two years.
Olamide did this with Asake. Huge props to the man.
Olamide has also not wanted to engage in a public label dispute hence the “hush hush” nature of the split, amicable or not.
When you see some harsh terms and clauses being put in record label contracts, it is for scenarios like this - when the boy you are helping turns around to ask you “What did you even do for me?” after you must have burnt hundreds of millions of Naira to establish them.
While it is exciting to be independent, many Nigerian artistes do not realise how hard it is to succeed as an independent artiste. It only favours very determined and hardworking artistes capable of multi-tasking as you will be wearing so many hats.
The freedom can also lead to the artiste’s downfall. With no one to push you and keep you on your toes, you can get lost in the lifestyle and forget what brought you to the top in the first place: making quality music. Blink twice and you are back to being irrelevant.
Do you make more money while you are independent? Yes. But in the absence of a well-oiled system to churn out quality music and distribute it effectively, that money can go down very quickly, especially if you are no longer ‘hot’. Always remember that 100% of $10,000 is $10,000 while 30% of $1m is $300,000.
Owning everything isn’t always the smarter decision.
Going forward, there are two ways Asake’s career can pan out.
1. He can excel greatly: He is leaving YBNL at a high note as a global superstar and can leverage the relationships and networks gained for more success. If he is internally driven, this is the most likely outcome.
2. The beginning of the end: He will ride the wave he is on now and then his career will dwindle with occasional sputters - one good song here and there. We saw this with Reekado Banks and may be seeing this with R***r. The path to decline is not always steep but the peak of their career is usually when they were still with their label.
That said, I wish Asake well.
I want to deeply appreciate Olamide for gifting us this remarkable star, just as he has gifted us a galaxy of others before him.
And for those who think Asake was impatient, it appears you haven’t been paying attention. The man himself warned us from the beginning.
“Mr. Money no dey waste time.”
Will his famed impatience be his saving grace or his greatest undoing?
Only time will tell. 🙏🏽❤️
©️Kelvin Alaneme, 2024.
