EMPIRE, an independent label, distributor, and publisher, has launched EMPIRE Africa.
Ezegozie Eze Jr., Vice President Market Development, Kareem Mobalaji, Regional Head West Africa, and Titilope Adesanya, Project Manager, are leading EMPIRE's expansion in Africa.
Ghazi Shami created EMPIRE in 2010.
Eze, Mobolaji, and Adesanya will negotiate new talent collaborations and promote musicians in Western Africa and beyond the continent in their new roles.
They will support EMPIRE's portfolio of artists in music markets such as Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and the Ivory Coast from their base in Lagos, Nigeria.
The announcement follows a string of recent EMPIRE releases in Africa, including Fireboy DML's hit single Peru, which has remixes by Ed Sheeran, 21 Savage, and Blxst, Olamide's Carpe Diem, Burna Boy's Twice As Tall (which is distributed by EMPIRE in Africa), Wande Coal's Realms, and Kizz Daniel's King of Love.
According to EMPIRE, its releases in 2021 "blanketed the top 35 tracks" on Apple Music's Nigeria Top Songs chart.
As the year comes to a close, EMPIRE claims to be the #1 distributor in Nigeria, according to TurnTable Charts.
Eze comes to EMPIRE from his position as General Manager of Universal Music Nigeria, where he was responsible for creating UMG's main growth initiatives and artists throughout Western Africa.
As General Manager, Eze built the Anglophone West Africa regional office, created the first Canal Olympia venues in Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria, and led UMG to become the first major label to collaborate with local digital service providers, Boomplay and uduX.
Mobolaji previously worked as a marketing executive for mobile technology company MTech and created his own digital marketing agency, Ingle Mind, where he produced and worked with Nigerian superstars such as Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, WizKid, Olamide, Fireboy DML, and others.
Mobolaji is widely considered as Nigeria's leading A&R and development executive due to his work with the aforementioned musicians. Adesanya comes to EMPIRE with a background in music journalism and marketing.
She most recently worked in product management and communications at Africori, a digital music distribution startup.
The trio's expertise will offer a lot of knowledge to EMPIRE's worldwide team, both in Western Africa and elsewhere.
