See What's Happening To Ycee Deal With Song Music

In October 2016, singer and rapper Ycee who at the time had fairly gained attention with his hit tunes ‘Jagaban’ and ‘Omo Alhaji’ signed a deal with international music company, Sony Music. Beyond the fact that Ycee’s debut EP, The First Wave was to be released under Sony Music, no one really knew the details of their deal.

Frankly, there wasn’t so much for fans to know. Ycee was the third Nigerian artiste to sign a deal with Sony Music after Wizkid and Davido. From our end, it was a major achievement that was pregnant with international collaborations, world tours, cash flow and everything else that characterised such deals.

So it came as a shock when barely a year into the partnership, Ycee used a Twitter rant to air his grievances with Sony and went as far as naming names and throwing pointed shades at the company’s General Manager for West Africa, Michael Ugwu.

He tweeted, “Ever wonderPhy these execs running digital sharing companies live like they signed all the artistes?Cos they eating everyone’s

Ycee accused whoever it concerned of “reaping completely of his hardwork and sweat” and “milking” artistes. He also dragged online music distribution service, Freeme Digital, which has been said to be associated with Michael Ugwu, into the matter.

The message was clear. Ycee’s relationship with Sony Music had been strained, there was an undisclosed issue with the contract and for reasons we may never be able to explain, Ycee went on what can be safely termed as a misguided social media rant.

When Michael Ugwu replied, he ascertained speculations that something had gone wrong with Ycee’s contract and suggested what he called “appropriate methods of contract dispute resolution”.