‘Nigerian Music Going Global’ on AfricaMusicLaw.com is an ongoing feature that tracks the slow but steady rise and infiltration of contemporary Nigerian music and artists in Western mainstream culture, across the globe. In the past three weeks, we’ve seen American mega artists like Drake, Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys all rock to Nigerian artist Wizkid’s ‘Ojuelegaba,’ a hit single off Wizkid’s latest album ‘Ayo.’
Now, Alicia Keys shows her expansion and grasp of Nigerian music by grooving to Skales ‘Shake Body.’ Watch her and then meet Skales in AML interview below.
What’s so interesting is that Skales and Wizkid used to be on the same label, Empire Mates Entertainment (EME). EME terminated its label contract with Skales because it essentially claimed that Skales was yet to bring a true return on investment. This move by the label was very controversial as many felt the label kept Skales on the back burner/playing a bench warming role on the label, while it invested all its monies and attention to Wizkid the “Starboy.” Shortly after terminating its relationship with Skales, Wizkid called it quits with EME.
Nevertheless, EME will still benefit from Wizkid’s ‘Ojuelegba’ since Wizkid was still contractually bound to EME when he released his album ‘Ayo.’ For Skales, he launched his label OHK Entertainment, released ‘Shake Body,’ then later signed a joint deal with Baseline Records. This means if he played his cards right and ‘Shake Body’ garners him a lot of attention, a large part of the revenue generated from ‘Shake Body’ and possibly some of his other songs prior to him signing with Baseline will go directly into his pocket.
[app_audio src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/africamusiclaw/AML006Life_After_Termination_of_Artist-Label_Contract___EMEs_SKALES.mp3″]
Interview: Meet Skales on The AML Podcast Show with Ms. Uduak
Begin at the 6:00 mark.
Alicia Keys Groves to Skales’ ‘Shake Body’
Alicia Keys rocking to Wizkid’s ‘Ojuelegba’
🙏🏽 A video posted by therealswizzz (@therealswizzz) on
