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Nigeria: Neji Battles Marketing Company
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This Day (Lagos)
3 November 2007
Posted to the web 5 November 2007
Nseobong Okon-Ekong
Lagos
In what promises to be a test case in the Nigerian music industry, multiple award-winning pop superstar and highlife icon, Sunny Neji is set for a monumental battle with a marketing company, Ahbu Ventures for unauthorized release of his new single, 'Rock Steady'.
The new single on radio is said to have been released without the permission of the artiste, his label, Impakt Recordsor his management, Now Muzik.
The song "Rock Steady" is one of the many new materials given to Ahbu Ventures, the marketing company through which Sunny Neji's latest album, Off Da Hook was distributed in Nigeria, for a listening session.
Neji's camp insist they duly informed Ahbu Ventures that "Rock Steady", "Kaduna" and two other titles were recorded for a special project EP release scheduled for next year and were not to be considered for the Off Da Hook re-issue tagged Naija Love.
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Now Muzik's Efe Omorogbe explained thus: "This is not the understanding we had and Ahbu Ventures has absolutely no right to put the song on radio. When we first heard it on radio we thought Impakt had made a decision to break it without informing us and we were furious. We called an emergency meeting with Sunny Neji, Peter Iyambe, Ayo Rotimi and everyone at Impakt and discovered the leak was not authorized by them. We called friends on radio who confirmed they got the song from Ahbu Ventures and now we're livid. They can't arrogate to themselves the right to break our material on radio or include it in the re-issue without permission. We have tried to be very civil with them and repeatedly invited them for a meeting but they keep coming up with lame excuses and re-scheduling. Soon our patience will run out and they would wish they hadn't started this."
A totally bemused Efe added, "Now Muzik admits that Ahbu Ventures had indicated interest in including "Rock Steady" in the re-issue and driving the entire project with it because of their belief that it marks a glorious return to Sunny Neji's highlife roots but the request was turned down because it wasn't in line with our A&R plans for the time being.
Moreover, Ahbu Ventures had made a similar request months back that forced us to re-work our entire plan. We switched mode after expending time, energy and resources on our Naija Love media campaign. Ahbu pleaded with us to include "Naija Love", a theme song for a different project, in the re-issue the minute they heard it and after due consideration, we acceded. Now it's "Rock Steady". I don't mind them wanting to sell a zillion CDs but hey! they can't put out a song until they secure the rights".
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