“Blogs and sites created news out of thin air” – Banky W speaks on Wizkid’s EME deal

EME boss, Banky W, has characteristically remained
silent as the ‘Has Wizkid left EME or not’ saga
rumbled on. However, in an interview with City
People, the recording artiste and brand ambassador,
decided to make some salient points.
Excerpts:
When you released that album there was
something a lot of people noticed?
Let me tell you that Wizkid wasn’t on the album.
First of all, I want to say that what we like to call
‘Bad Belle People’ because they think there may be
bad news and when you don’t give them that news
they start to create it because I guess bad news
sells more than good news. So I want to say
categorically that there was no twitter fight.
People go on-line and use Photoshop to create my
profile and say that I said this and then they go
and create Wizkid’s profile and say he said this.
The bottom line is first of all, that never
happened and what happened is that we’ve been
working on Wizzy’s project to make it work
internationally and when you are getting to that
level things change. He has his own idea of what
he wants to do and we are in 100 per cent in
support of that and these are things that we
dreamed of back in 2009 when I signed him. I felt
like this guy can blow all over the world, this guy
can you know really be a star and now that it has
happened it is a good thing there is a Disturbing
London angle he wants to take and so on and so
forth and there is a contract in place and he is
still signed to EME.
So he is still signed to EME?
Absolutely he is still signed to EME.
Because the general believe is that he started his
own thing, ‘Star Boy entertainment.’
Well, you know that is something else he wants to
do. He wants to start his record label and I mean I
started my own label and look where I am today.
You have a lot of people fabricating stuff and
trying to make it feel like there is a battle and
you know we don’t believe in that. We are all
mature, we are all grown up people and we are all
happy for one another.
You know he is starting his label and we are in
support of that, he is going internationally and
working with Disturbing London, and we are in
support of that. There is still the Konvict Music
angle which we also orchestrated so I guess we
can call it restructuring but we are all on the table
negotiating and figuring out the best way to make
the project move forward. There is no beef, Wiz is
absolutely a part of the family legally, he is still
signed even aside from contract somethings are
bigger than contract and money. EME and Wiz will
continue.
It is just that we are figuring out the terms and
the reason he is not on the album and in fact he
had worked on some one or two things that were
supposed to be on the album but in the interest of
kind of respecting the conversation that we were
having, you know what let’s figure out where we
are going and how we are going to do his next
level stuff. So we decided as a group to suspend
the music that we worked on together just for
now till we figure out all of that. We are almost at
the conclusion will that. He is absolutely and will
always be a part of the family. I mean we created
history, this is somebody whose debut album took
the whole country, the continent by storm and you
know we all worked on that, so it is a good thing
not a bad thing, growth is good so that is really
the long and short of it.
How does it work for him to have star boy
entertainment and still be a part of EME?
I would give you a fantastic example, Kanye West
has “Good Music” and he is still with Rock Nation,
Rockafella that is all I am going to say about it.
There is no beef, no war. One day I woke up and I
saw on twitter that somebody has used Photoshop
to make my profile and said some random things
and used some terrible English that I have never
used in my life it just unfortunate that as far as
we have come as an industry there are still some
people in the media and I want to give credit to
like City People.
You guys never took that route and I respect you
people for that because some other blogs and
sites started creating things out of thin air to
cause a problem. We are working and we are all
trying to achieve our dreams and hopefully taking
this movement to another level. I have never said
anything negative about Wiz, and Wiz has never
said anything negative about me publicly and let’s
just accept and leave it like that. Wiz will continue
to be successful, EME will continue to be
successful. Let’s just keep the peace one big happy
family.
I am going little into what was reported that at
your album launch that Wizzy was ignored. He was
not acknowledged at the album launch.
I have to explain it. The album launch was
structured in a very specific way. We used the
album launch, I might add, to launch the Samsung
Galaxy Brand phone by the way if you haven’t got
one you might go out to get one which has my
signature on it but at the album launch nobody
was acknowledged because it was not one of those
events where you sit down and say “Oh Don Jazzy
is in the building and now we have the CEO of
Samsung in the building and now you have eLDee
the Don in the building who were there.
We wanted to have something that is not a typical
event. Secondly from the stage, I don’t
acknowledge anybody and that is not a
disrespectful thing it is just the structure of the
event. Wiz came in like Don Jazzy, Samsung
Executives, eLDee the Don, IK, Waje, like
everybody else came in and we had a fantastic
event and nobody was complaining from my end
but again I go back to the fact that people want to
create bad news and it is exciting. Exciting for
some people when Biggy and 2Pac are throwing
words at each other and when Nas and Jay-Z are
fighting and then people just want to create that
and it is sad, really sad.
Why didn’t they write Don Jazzy came to the event
and I don’t hail him? Why didn’t they write I didn’t
hail any of the other EME artiste that came to the
event? Why didn’t they write I didn’t hail Segun
Demuren, that is my business partner. They didn’t
write it because it wasn’t exciting.
A lot of people believe that what led to the rift
between you and Wiz is because of the sharing
formula. I just want you to clear the air on that
issue.
Okay, again, I want to say about “sharing formula”
again, I got back to the something I have been
saying which is when you don’t give them bad
news that create it. EME has the fairest recording
deal in the country by far. I can go pound for
pound and show you the terms that EME artistes
including myself even though I own the company,
have versus any other recording contract name
the recording company. You don’t do that but I
can beat my chest to say EME has the best
recording contract in the industry, it is not just
true for people to say or hint that any of my
artistes are received 25 per cent. It is impossible
and even you as an artiste can never sign that
kind of deal so it is 100 per cent false. Part of the
reason the EME deals are structured the way they
are is because I am an artiste myself and when I
was coming up, I was offered a lot of deals even in
Nigeria that were not just but now that I’m to
start up myself, I wont sign a deal with an artiste
I wont be able to sign myself which I have also
signed the same deal. So to cut the long story
short, the report out there is 100 per cent untrue.
In fact, if you actually look at the clause that EME
takes on behalf of the artistes from the day we
signed until when they released their album or
whenever money starts being generated, the deal
is actually more in favour of the artiste than of
the company but we do that because I myself just
wouldn’t feel right about a record deal that won’t
benefit the artiste. It is 100 per cent false again. It
is just sad that some people try to create news.
They don’t have the fact so they create them.
However, you have to go back to the things I
actually said not the things people said I said or
what people said Wizzy said you know, it is just
what it is.
People can say what they want, but what I tell my
artistes is that Jesus Christ was perfect and he was
still crucified. How much more us with all the
crazy, bad messed-up things we have done in our
lives and you think you are going to walk through
this paths and be praised? You have to deal with
the territory. You want to go on stage and people
are going to cheer there are come that want to
tear you down regardless.
And all you can do really is try to be a good
person and try to do right by everybody God
brings your way and if you do that let God take
care of the rest. We are fine, we are cool, very
happy with Wiz and for Wiz. That is all I have to
say.