How will Mavin Records manage Iyanya’s arrival?

It is now official. Kukere master, Iyanya, is now a member of the Mavin Record label. His decision to team up with Don Jazzy’s record label was made public on Monday following a statement released by the artiste.

The statement read in part “It’s official, I’m now a Mavin and we’ve dropped the first single and there’s more coming. Everything is official, it’s not a production deal or anything. I’m part of the label, so I look forward to more hits and I look forward to more achievements.

“We needed the Iyanya brand to work with somebody who understands the music industry and can help me fulfill that dream. Making sure that I get my music right is the most important thing.”

The news of Iyanya’s movement came as a shock to many observers of happenings in the music industry. It was not the typical deal that many would have anticipated. In fact, nobody saw it coming. He may be walking into Mavin with his shoulders high but it is not going to be an easy ride for him.

While the deal may seem a perfect one for Iyanya at a time when he needed a ‘quick fix’ for his music career that appears to have taken a dip in the last few years, one may be tempted to ask how Mavin, under the leadership of Don Jazzy, would manage to cope with Iyanya’s fame without altering the seemingly perfect arrangement inside the star-studded Mavin family.

With Tiwa Savage, Dr Sid, D’Prince, Korede Bello, Reekado Banks and Di’ja on the label, Iyanya may need more than his Kukere dance steps and six-pack figure to flourish in a team that has become synonymous with success for the past four years, the latest being Savage’s new international deal with Jay Z’s Rock Nation.

For Don Jazzy, handling the business and music sides of Iyanya as the latter had clarified in his statement, should not be a difficult task, especially when one considers the rapid transformation of hitherto unknown trio of Korede Bello, Reekardo Banks and Di’ja, who were signed to the label about three years ago. Their lives have not remained the same since they joined what they usually referred to as the ‘winning team’.

Reekado Banks released his first album, Spotlight under the label about two months ago, while Korede Bello and Di’ja are reportedly working on theirs as well. Not much has been heard about D’prince, who incidentally is a sibling to Don Jazzy and he may further be pushed down the pecking order with the arrival of Iyanya. Tiwa Savage and Dr Sid are rated as the biggest artistes on the label but now that Iyanya has joined, that arrangement may change.

Iyanya is not entirely new to success. He has tied down a few endorsement deals over the years and has managed to stay on top of his game with a number of hit tracks. Songs like, Kukere, Mr Oreo, Lekwaku, Applaudise among others have cemented his place as one artiste who knows when to give his fans what they want. On top of that, his deal with telecommunications giant, MTN was said to have been renewed about three months ago because he remains one of the products of the MTN Project Fame whose influence in the music industry has to continued push the MTN brand among youths in Africa.

Now that he has joined Mavins, all eyes are on Don Jazzy and his label as many would want to know the details of the deal Iyanya signed and how Don Jazzy was able to convince him to join the label.

Though, not much was revealed about the deal but those who should know informed R that Iyanya and Don Jazzy have both come a long way but it is not going to be a ‘boss-to-artiste affair’.

According to a source who pleaded anonymity told R on Thursday that Iyanya understands what he was getting into before he signed and he seems to have built a ‘special relationship’ with Don Jazzy over the years. “Whatever deal they might have struck, it would sure worth the noise.”Another side of the deal which R gathered was that Iyanya may have have joined the label to fill the void left behind by D’banj’s departure when the defunct Mo’hits group broke up.

As many people continue to watch as things pan out in the Mavin family, one thing that is sure to happen to Iyanya is that Don Jazzy will turn around his career and put him on a different pedestal.