Burna Boy's record label, Spaceship announces the signing of Buju

On April 16, 2020, Nigerian superstar, Burna Boy's record label announced the signing of afro-fusion artist, Buju. A statement on the label's official Instagram page, @spacecollective reads, "Please welcome our new Afro-Fusion artist @bujutoyourears #SpaceFam."

This confirmation comes after months of media speculation that Buju had signed to the label. By this, he becomes the third act to be signed to the label after Burna Boy, Burna Boy's sister and Soul, Afro-Jazz, Dance, Nissi Ogulu.

Who is Buju?

He is the young artist who burst onto the scene in 2019 after his request for Zlatan to feature on his song, 'Spiritual' went viral. Before then, some core Nigerian fans had known him on the freemium streaming platform, Soundcloud. As 2018 drew to a close and 2019 took off, Buju got co-signs from numerous OAPs and media personalities.

By the middle of 2019, Zlatan finally agreed to feature on 'Spiritual' and the song was warmly received by Nigerians. In July 2019, Zlatan told Dotun and Kemi Smallz on Midday Oasis by Cool FM how the collaboration happened. After then, Buju released two singles, 'Commander' and 'L'enu' to warm reception.

In December 2019, word on the street was that Burna Boy had jumped on a remix of 'L'enu' and planned to sign the emerging act. Nonetheless, a video for the remix was on released on April 16, 2020.

What is Spaceship?

Spaceship is a label owned by Burna Boy. Key players on the label are reported to include Burna Boy, his mom and manager, Bose 'Mama Burna' Ogulu and other family members. Before Buju, Burna Boy and his sister, Nissi were already signed to the label. Nissi is a Soul, Afro-Jazz and Afro-dance act as well as a Mechanical Engineer.

In-house producers at the label include Kel P and Leriq.

Burna Boy announced the launch of his label, Spaceship on February 18, 2015. This came after his two-year deal with the Piriye 'Peedi Picasso' Isokrari owned label, Aristokrat Records ended in June 2014. A lot thought the label was going to be named Burna Boy Goons, but Burna Boy opted for Spaceship Entertainment.

The first project Burna Boy released on the label was On A Spaceship, in November 2015. Since then, all his projects have been credited to the label. However, starting with Outside, Burna Boy started releasing on Warner Music via Atlantic Records and the Matthew 'Baus' Adesuyan-owned Bad Habit, then Spaceship.

Burna Boy is signed to Warner Music via Atlantic Records, Bad Habit and his own label, Spaceship. However, it is yet unclear if Buju becomes a part of that set-up or if Buju is only signed to Spaceship for now. The latter would mean Spaceship remains an independent label that can sign artists to other labels asides Bad Habit/Atlantic/Warner.

The former would mean that Spaceship is an official imprint of Bad Habit or Atlantic Records (an arm of Warner Music).