EMPIRE launches Africa division in Lagos

EMPIRE was founded by Ghazi Shami in 2010 and already represents African acts including Ghana’s KiDi and Yaw Tog, and Nigeria’s Olamide, Fireboy DML and Basketmouth.

EMPIRE Africa will be headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, and support the company's artists in sub-Saharan markets including Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Ivory Coast.

Leading EMPIRE’s Africa operations will be Ezegozie Eze Jr in the role of vice-president of market development, West Africa regional head Kareem Mobalaji, and project manager Titilope Adesanya. The trio will handle talent partnerships and promotion on the continent.

Eze previously served as Universal Music Group general manager for Nigeria and West Africa. He led Universal to become the first major label to partner with digital service providers Boomplay and uduX.

A&R expert Mobalaji, formerly with mobile company MTech, is the founder of digital marketing agency Ingle Mind, whose clients included the likes of Afrobeats stars Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage and Wizkid among others.

Adesanya joins the EMPIRE Africa team with significant experience in journalism, public relations and marketing. Before joining EMPIRE, she was the product manager at African music distributor Africori.

The announcement of EMPIRE Africa follows recent successful releases on the continent, most notably KiDi’s ‘Touch It’ remix featuring US rapper Tyga, Fireboy DML’s ‘Peru, with remixes by Ed Sheeran, 21 Savage and Blxst, as well as albums like Olamide’s Carpe Diem, Wande Coal’s Realms and Kizz Daniel’s King of Love.

The company says its releases “blanketed the top 35 songs” on Apple Music’s Nigeria Top Songs chart in 2021.