When Spaceship Collective debuted a few years ago, it noted that its mission was to boost creativity and help African artistes gain more control and ownership of their music catalogues.
Years down the line, the indegenous record label, and publishing company has achieved some remarkable feats within and outside the Nigerian music scene.
Founded by Bose Ogulu, who is also the executive director, and Burna Boy, who is the largest shareholder with his imprint “Spaceship Entertainment”, the record label has signed and produced many wonderful music artistes chief of whom is Burna Boy, the reigning African music artistes
Other signees of the record label include; Nissiu, Leriq, and Telz.
Traling the journeys of the signees, “Nissi” Ogulu became the premier sign
ee in 2019 and released double singles, Trouble & Tornado of her ‘Ignite’ EP in December that year. She also released her on-going critically-acclaimed ‘Ignite’ EP on July 31, 2020. The lead single of the EP titled “Judi” has been a viral sensation. Nissi draws on her heritage with the E.P and firmly establishes her signature fusion sound; blend of highlife, afro-punk, and afro-jazz.
The label signed Buju in April 2020 and released his first hit single, which was a remix to Buju’s Lenu featuring Burna Boy. Buju has been featured on many successful singles and is currently working on a body of work that would be released later this year.
The label also released Burna Boy’s highly anticipated and globally accepted fifth studio album titled, ‘Twice As Tall’ on August 15, 2020. The album was a passionate and personal reflection of Burna Boy, further amplified by his moody mix of afrobeat, reggae, dancehall, and hip-hop. Within a few days of the album release, the ‘Twice As Tall’ album has already garnered over 50 million streams across all platforms.
Bose Ogulu, who was also one of the executive producers on Twice As Tall along with Burna Boy and Diddy (Sean Combs), says the mission of Spaceship Collective, is to help African artistes gain more control and ownership of their music catalogues.
According to her: “The objective of Spaceship Collective is to support the creation of great, timeless, authentic music and to ensure that African creatives maintain control of their own narrative while they tell the world their story. It is important that their catalogues are managed by Africans who are better placed to understand their art, narrative and trajectory”.
Spaceship Collective is also home to experienced producers such as Leriq and Telz (dubbed “Spaceship’s Rocketboyz”), who have worked with Burna Boy on his previous projects. Leriq produced all the songs on the Burna Boy’s acclaimed ‘Redemption’ EP. So, it is no surprise when he reconnected with Burna Boy to produce among others, some of the standout songs from Burna Boy’s Twice As Tall’ album: ‘No Fit Vex’, ‘Way Too Big’, Monsters You Made ft Chris martin.
On the other hand, Telz has been the revelation of the album as he produced ‘Wonderful’, the lead single of the Twice As Tall album, ‘Onyeka’, ‘Wonderful’, ‘ Naughty By Nature’ and ‘Wetin Dey Sup’ in collaboration with Timbaland. He has also produced other chart-topping songs such as “Abule” by Patoranking and is already being touted as a potential producer of the year.
Going by the new annexation in the dawn of the global entertainment industry, this is the beginning of a conglomeration of homegrown expertise and proficiency with a pivotal insight into the future of African music.
