EMPIRE, the leading independent record label, announces its first-ever Africa compilation album Where We Come From (Vol. 1). Alongside this announcement today, award-winning Nigerian singer-songwriter Kizz Daniel drops the first offering from the project ‘Cough (Odo).’

“For this song I wanted to highlight the feeling of new love,” Kizz Daniel said. “The song itself is energetic, celebratory and really captures what it’s like to impress someone new.” 

With over 1 billion streams across streaming platforms and 9.8 million Instagram followers, this is Kizz’s follow up to his global smash hit ‘Buga’. The song peaked at #1 in 19 countries on Apple Music, debuted at #5 on the Billboard US Afrobeats charts and topped the global Shazam charts at #1. ‘Buga’ also peaked at #1 in multiple regions on Audiomack and sits as the current most streamed song on Boomplay. Watch the video for ‘Buga’ below.

EMPIRE Africa globalized EMPIRE’s existing success in America by further highlighting and developing the accomplishments of Nigerian artists like Fireboy DML, Olamide and Asake. Named as the top label in Nigeria after one year, EMPIRE Africa holds this title by market share and as the top music company with the collective most No. 1’s in Nigeria by TurnTable Charts, the Billboard equivalent in Africa. Furthermore, artists across EMPIRE Africa’s roster dominated the Top 35 songs on Apple Music’s ‘Nigeria Top Songs’ charts and held the #1 Top Single for over 17 weeks on TurnTable Charts. The artisit division has seen much recent success with Fireboy DML becoming the first African artist to perform at the 2022 BET Awards, Kizz Daniel breaking records as most streamed artist on Boomplay, KiDi going platinum in India for his hot single “Touch It” featuring multi-platinum recording artist Tyga, and Black Sheriff gaining 75+ million audio streams for “Kwaku the Traveller'' in just one month.

“The artists from Africa really transcend where music is today,” Ghazi, EMPIRE CEO and Founder said. “This is a legendary moment for EMPIRE to be able to share incredible African music with the world, much of which we were fortunate enough to record at our studio here in San Francisco." 

ABOUT KIZZ DANIEL: 

Oluwatobiloba Daniel Anidugbe, professionally known as Kizz Daniel is a multi-award-winning Nigerian Afrobeats, Pop, R&B singer and songwriter. Kizz Daniel is the epitome of an all-around entertainer with a magnetic tone, captivating lyrics, an alluring screen presence and undeniably engaging beats; the irrefutable characteristic of all his songs. 

ABOUT EMPIRE: 

Founded in 2010 by Bay Area native Ghazi Shami, EMPIRE is currently leading through its innovative approach to the digital music era across its label, distribution and publishing arms. Ghazi has been recognized for his work in Billboard’s 2021 Indie Power Players list, Billboard’s 2021 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players, as well as Billboard’s 2022 Power List. With its focus on early stage artist development, the San Francisco based company has been instrumental in launching the careers of multi-platinum, Grammy Award winning Anderson.Paak, BLEU, Key Glock, Young Dolph, XXXTENACION, KingVon, and more.

Through crafting bespoke deals that are always in favor of the artist, EMPIRE is able to form a true partnership with each artist and label on its roster. Coupled with EMPIRE's unique software for analytics, recoupment, and royalties, which is available to every partner, the company offers a level of transparency unprecedented in the music industry.

Author: Adam Bailey

Adam is a regular contributor for established press release distribution website Release-News.com. He writes on a wide range of topics including music.