There are several women who now operate and own their own record labels in the Nigerian music industry. They include Omawumi, Joy Tongo, Naira, and Mo’Cheddah. All of these women helmed record labels, with the exception of Joy Tongo, are artist owned. A few years back, we saw Joy Tongo, former fashion model, introduce us to the artist Retta.
I expected a lot more from the signing but by March of 2013, we heard Retta had allegedly parted ways because JTON records was putting more focus on Cynthia, at the expense of Retta’s career.
Shortly after or just before Retta’s parting ways, I received a solicitation to feature new signee to JTON Records, Cynthia Morgan. It’s not been that long and now Cynthia Morgan is signed to P-Square’s (Jude Okoye) Northside Music Inc. Records. P-Square took to twitter to make the announcement yesterday.
I have reached out to Joy because I am curious to know what the deal structure is on that. I suppose some sort of joint venture. Nevertheless and in the meantime, what do you think about women owned labels in Nigeria? Do they fare better? Men have a need to please the artists they sign. I have a feeling women owned labels are not “dashing” a new artist that is yet to show any real value cars, houses et al. But, are they managing these talents any better? I wonder where the industry would be if women were at the helm.
Joy has mentioned in the past, and I have heard and it goes without saying, the difficult challenges women face in operating any business but particularly a record label in Nigeria and trying to get visibility for their artists. It might explain the Cynthia Morgan move to work with P-Square. They are men and even without the kind of clout they have, just by virtue of being men, they can get more mileage for their artists.
Harsh innit? Needless to say, women have to push forward, regardless. I would like to hear your thoughts.
-Uduak
(NOTE: By the way, with people trying to parse out Jude Okoye/P-Square’s Northside Music Inc. from P-Square, Jude Okoye is an integral part of P-Square. He is substantially responsible for building the P-Square brand under Square Records that we know today and was also involved in the unprofessional termination of MayD via the web. So, I am unsure what real distinction there is, if any.)
More female naija rapper? Not sure about that.