5 Artistes That Left Record Labels And We Stopped Hearing About The Labels; EME, HKN, Aristokrat

Record labels and artistes engage in a symbiotic relationship, in which both parties help one another.

The Record label has the recognition, connections and financial resources, while the artiste has the content and the personality. One party cannot succeed without the other so, there becomes a need for both parties to collaborate in order to develop and make profits. Take Rema for instance, he is talented and has a cool personality but no one would've heard his sound if not for Don Jazzy's Mavin Records.


After engaging in this symbiotic relationship, there becomes a time when the relationship turns parasitic; that is, when one party grows so much that the other party is just holding it back. In a case like this, the relationship has to be terminated. Either the artiste is holding the Record Label back or the Record Label holding the artiste back, fact remains that the relationship would be terminated.

This is the case of some of our bubbling artistes today. They grew up in a certain Record Label but have left in order to expand with their own Record Label. After they left their old Record Labels, things turned sour for the labels as they lost a bit of the recognition they had.
Some of these artistes that left their old Record labels and rocked their boats include;

1. Kiss Daniel

In the old Kiss Daniel's songs, you'll always hear "It's G-Worldwide, Emperor Geezy". He was earlier signed to G-Worldwide, but left after some altercation with the Record Label. Kiss Daniel went on to form his own Record Label and he named it 'FlyBoy INC". Since he left, not much has been heard about G-Worldwide



2. Wizkid

Starboy Wizzy had a good run in EME alongside Record label colleagues; Skales, Shaydee, Banky W, Niyola and DJ Xclusive. The old Wizkid's songs usually start with "Wizzy... EMEzy". It was his famous catchphrase till he dropped a bomb on the whole public and left EME. Wizkid formed his own Record Label called "Starboy Entertainment" and has been thriving in the music industry ever since, unlike EME. After Wizkid left, the recognition of EME cut back, then other signed artistes started leaving.




3. Davido

Before Davido blew up, most of his songs starts with "It's HKN Music". This was because he was earlier signed to HKN music, which is owned by his brother, Adewale Adeleke. Davido left HKN to form his own music group called "Davido Music Worldwide". Since he left HKN, we've not really been hearing from the Record Label anymore, just few sounds from B-Red, who has now joined DMW. It's like Davido left, and took HKN's fame with him





4. Burna Boy

When Burna Boy released hit songs like "Like To Party" and "Tonight", he was signed to Aristokrat Records. He entered the music industry under the Aristokrat umbrella but, left to form his own Record label which he titled "Spaceship Entertainment". After Burna left, Aristokrat has been a shadow of it's old self.





5. Tekno

After 5 years in Ubi Franklin's MMMG, Tekno left to form his own label which he called "Cartel Music". It's been a long time since anyone has heard anything from MMMG which housed Iyanya, Emma Nyra and Tekno in the past.