There are certain people in the music industry that deserve recognition and it’s because of the hard work they do behind the scenes in order to birth musical talents. These people have built musical stars over the years and these stars have in turn been giving us great music to sing along to, vibe with and dance to.
The top three talent managers in Nigeria are:
DON JAZZY
Michael Collins Ajereh, is widely known as Don Jazzy. Don Jazzy is the Founder of Mavin Records. He has a passion for discovering and nurturing music talents.
In 2004, Don Jazzy co-founded Mo’ Hits records with D’banj. After a disagreement between the two founders, they split up and he set up Mavin records in 2012. Some artists on Mo’ Hits records were Wande Coal, Dr. Sid, D’Banj, K-Switch, Ikechukwu, and D’Prince.
While working at Mavin records, he found talents like Tiwa Savage, Korede Bello, Dija, Reekado Banks and so on. All these artists have now branched out of Mavin Records to be on their own.
Currently at Mavin records, Don Jazzy has made music stars out of great talents like Ayra Starr, Crayon, Magixx, Boy Spice and Ladipoe.
OLAMIDE
Olamide Adedeji, known as Olamide Badoo by music lovers, is the second musical talent manager and mentor. He is a rapper and singer. According to reports, he is one of the biggest and most influential artists in Africa. In 2011, he released his debut studio album, Rapsodi while signed to Coded Tunes and ever since then, he hasn’t stopped topping charts.
In 2012, he established his own record label in order to mentor musical talents. He called his record label ‘Yahoo Boy No Laptop Nation’, popularly known as YBNL Nation or simply YBNL.
Since the inception of YBNL, Olamide has signed over ten artists; some popular artists he has mentored include Adekunle Gold, Fireboy DML, Lil Kesh, Temmie Ovwasa, Davolee, Lyta and others.
Naira Marley and Portable also got a little boost from Olamide in their careers.
In February 2022, Olamide unveiled another artist, Asake. Olamide was said to have put a call across to Asake after taking notice of his talents. Badoo is always on the lookout for new talents.
DAVIDO:
The third person on this list is Davido. Davido is also known as OBO, an abbreviation for ‘Omo Baba Olowo’. Davido has grown so much in the music industry and he strongly believes in the saying “we rise by lifting others”. Because of this belief, Davido had not ceased to lend a hand to those in need and to groom and nurture musical talents.
One thing a lot of people will be proud of when Davido is spoken about is his love for discovering and building musical talents.
David has mentored music stars such as Peruzzi, Dremo, Yonda, Mayorkun, B-Red, Idowest, DJ Ecool and recently, Toby K. Through him, these musical geniuses have been able to come into the light. The name of his record label is 30 Billion gang (30 BG).
Shout out to these mentors who work tirelessly and never cease to impart their knowledge, skill and expertise to others.
