Legal Battle Erupts Over Burna Boy’s Early Music Catalogue

A high-stakes legal dispute has broken out over the ownership of Burna Boy’s early music catalogue, placing his former record label, current management, and business partners on opposing sides of a complex legal and criminal case.

The conflict centres on an alleged transaction completed in mid-2024, in which Aristokrat Music, the label that signed Burna Boy in 2011, is said to have sold the artist’s historical master recordings and intellectual property rights to Spaceship Music, his current imprint led by Burna Boy and his mother, Bose Ogulu.

However, 960 Music Group, which owns a 40 per cent stake in Aristokrat Music, has challenged the transaction, arguing that it was carried out without shareholder approval, board authorisation, or proper corporate process.

The company has asked a court to declare the sale invalid, describing the catalogue as the company’s most valuable asset and insisting that its disposal required formal consent from all major stakeholders.

The dispute has since escalated into a criminal matter. Charges have been filed against Aristokrat Records founder Piriye Isokrari following investigations into allegations of fraud and financial misconduct.

He is accused of unlawfully diverting proceeds from the multi-million-dollar transaction for personal use or routing funds outside official company channels. Additional allegations include breach of fiduciary duty and abuse of executive authority.

960 Music claims the transaction amounted to a private arrangement that undermined minority shareholders and violated basic principles of corporate governance.

An executive of the company said management lacked the authority to dispose of assets of such magnitude without shareholder involvement and has asked the court to reverse the transaction and restore the catalogue.

For Burna Boy, the dispute places his early recordings in legal uncertainty. While the deal was intended to secure full ownership of his masters, a court ruling against the transaction could force his label to relinquish rights to some of his earliest songs.

The case is expected to have wide-ranging implications for intellectual property ownership, shareholder rights, and governance standards within Nigeria’s music industry.