Famous Ghanaian artiste, Stonebwoy, has challenged a common narrative about the rise of African artistes on the global stage. In his view, success is not rooted in signing with major record labels, but in securing meaningful financial investment.
In an interview on Asempa FM, the Burniton Music Group boss rejected the idea that artistes, particularly Nigerians, owe their international breakthroughs to big-label affiliations.
“Every time you just say that because this person is on a record label that is why they are achieving such feats. What is a record label? A record label is not necessarily an investor,” Stonebwoy said.
He argued that it’s not the prestige of the label that propels artistes forward, but rather the backing of committed investors who believe in their vision and are willing to fund it.
Delving deeper, Stonebwoy explained that not all label contracts guarantee financial support. The structure of these deals varies widely, and many do not provide the kind of investment needed for international success.
“Recording labels have different set of agreements. There is licensing agreement that you can license your songs on. Some people have a 360 agreement where the labels are in charge of everything from marketing to everything else so, therefore, they are able to invest their money and everything is coming to them basically,” he stated.
Stonebwoy also cast doubt on how much attention major U.S.-based labels actually give to African talent. According to him, the real engine behind the dominance of Nigerian artistes on global platforms is the presence of independent investors, not multinational corporations.
“The major labels, most of them are from the outside, America, and they are focused on artists not necessarily African artistes… These our Nigerian counterparts that do the big stuff, they do so many things for themselves, they have independent investors who actually support. It’s not a matter of having a big record label,” the ‘Tuff Seed’ composer further stated.
Below is a video of his statement.
