Chocolate City Music CEO, Jude Abaga, a.k.a M.I visited Roc Nation while in New York for business. M.I was seen with top executives Lenny Santiego (A&R to Jay-Z) and Jason Kpana, head of Tidal. This is not the first time Chocolate City executives and artists have met and conferred with RocNation/Tidal executives. In 2015, Audu Maikori, the CEO at the time, revealed in an interview with Premium Times that the label had been in talks for over a year with Roc Nation.
PT: Rumours have it Ice Prince has a deal with Roc Nation. Can you tell us what kind of deal it is?
Maikori: We had a long discussion with Roc Nation for about a year now, and it has to do with strategic partnerships in terms of promotion across the continent. I can’t reveal the details right now, but let just say as far Chocolate City is concerned, we have that relationship on the label side. There are many other deals we have signed you won’t have heard of. – Premium Times
It appears prior attempts have not necessarily yielded meaningful beneficial business relationships because Ice Prince is no longer with the label and we never really saw anything come out of the Chocolate City & Roc Nation talks. Given Roc Nation’s continued interest and dealings with African artists, including signing Mavin Records’ Tiwa Savage to a management deal, maybe this time things will sail through for Chocolate City.
Let’s see what happens.
-Ms. Uduak
