Mohbad’s Death: The Core Reason Record Labels Fallout With Their Artistes

I have so much tried to get my mind off Mohbad’s death and the events that led to his untimely demise, but honestly, I just can’t. I always find myself going back to his bullying videos, and his old music, reading up and asking those I know who are close to him what has been done and what’s the update about the so-called investigation over the cause of his death.

It is true that he is dead and buried, hence that cannot be undone but what we should be interested in is to make sure that nobody suffers the same fate as him. What the police should be interested in is dismantling the cult groups that parade themselves as record labels. Most so-called record labels in Nigeria are death traps for young artists.

It is always the case with most of these record labels that once an artiste wants to leave the label or has a different opinion with the label there will be fallout that sometimes leads to death. It happened with Runtown and his former record label boss Eric Many and it involved a series of police cases and ended up in the courtroom, a close source said that Runtown had to run for his life to avoid being killed. It happened with Kizz Daniel and his former record label G Worldwide. G Worldwide had to take an injunction from the court to stop Kiss Daniel from performing in shows or releasing new music and to have him change his name from Kiss Daniel to something else, Kiss Daniel had to change his name to Kizz Daniel.

It happened with Harrysongs with his former record label, Five Star Music, it ended in a police and court case too. These names I mentioned are some of the cases that made it to the public domain. I can tell you for free that there are hundreds of others too, some of which I and my law firm have handled; the core issues of the case always revolve around the artists wanting to leave and the label insisting that he is not going anywhere yet or that the artiste is yet to fulfill his obligations to the label. In fact, it happened with Wizkid and his former label, EME Records, a close source said that Wizkid had to forgo everything including his masters and royalties and his outstanding pay to start life afresh.

I have handled numerous cases which revolve around this issue and you need to be there to see the record label boss threatening to destroy the artiste and make sure he never does music again for wanting to leave. Some record label bosses do claim that they picked the artiste when they were nobody, made them a star and they are ungrateful for wanting to leave.

If you read music contracts, there are obligations on the side of the artiste and on the side of the record label and there are damages for any party that does not fulfill its own side of the obligation. It is a business relationship and should never be do or die. If an artiste feels he wants to exit the label and do something else before the effluxion of the contract, there are clauses in the contract that state his damages, some of the clauses include the artiste paying back some many to the record label, some include the artiste forgoing his royalties or his masters.

Some artists for the sake of peace are always ready to do anything like changing their name or never performing the songs they released under the label but the label will still ask for their heads.

This is sad, it is high time the law and legislation shine its light on the Nigerian music industry because a lot is happening there and that is why the death of Mohbad is quite significant as it has started this conversation. Many artists are now speaking up and crying for public help and we are obligated to help them before they will lose their lives like Mohbad.