Trade Press Reported Asake Signed a Distribution Deal With gamma. in 2025. His Copyright Line Has Read EMPIRE on Every Release Since.

In August 2025, a Nigerian music trade outlet reported that Asake had signed a global distribution deal with gamma., the Larry Jackson-led media company, through his own imprint Giran Republic, and that his three-year run with EMPIRE had ended. A named gamma Africa executive confirmed it on the record. Nine months later the evidence tells a different story. Asake’s collaborative EP with Wizkid in January 2026, his single “Worship” in March, and his fourth studio album M$NEY in April all carry the same copyright line: GIRAN Republic and EMPIRE. gamma. does not appear on any of them, and gamma.’s own website does not list Asake or Giran Republic among its artists or partners.

What actually happened in February 2025

Asake, born Ololade Ahmed, spent 2022 to early 2025 signed to Olamide’s YBNL Nation, itself distributed and published worldwide under EMPIRE through a joint venture the two companies signed in February 2020. That EMPIRE arrangement produced his debut album Mr. Money With The Vibe in September 2022, and its copyright line reads “EMPIRE” and “YBNL Nation” on Apple’s catalogue to this day.

In February 2025, Asake left YBNL and launched his own imprint, Giran Republic. His first release under it, “Why Love,” arrived on 12 February 2025. Its copyright line, read directly through Apple Music and matched on Spotify, is unambiguous: “© 2025 Giran Republic” and “℗ 2025 Giran Republic.” No EMPIRE credit, no other distributor named. For a few weeks, Asake was releasing music as an independent, unattached to any of the majors or major-adjacent distributors that had carried him for three years.

What was reported in August 2025

On 24 July 2025, Asake surprise-released “Badman Gangsta” featuring the French-Congolese rapper Tiakola. Industry watchers noticed EMPIRE’s name was missing from the single’s metadata. TurnTable Charts, a Nigerian music data and trade outlet, followed up and published on 1 August 2025 that the single had in fact been distributed by gamma., the Los Angeles-based company co-founded by former Apple Music executive Larry Jackson. The outlet quoted Osi Dirisu, who works publicly under the name Osi Suave and is Head of Label & Operations at gamma Africa, directly: “Yes, it’s a distro deal between gamma. and Giran Republic. Asake is the first of many talents we will be working with.” Asked about an upcoming album or release date, Dirisu declined to comment. The piece did not carry a quote from EMPIRE or from anyone on Asake’s team, and it did not state a territory, a term, or any financial detail. It described the arrangement in one register only: distribution.

That distinction matters. A distribution deal is pipework, not a rights transfer. It gets a recording onto DSPs and collects the resulting revenue on the label’s behalf; it does not confer ownership of the master, and it is not the same as a licence, in which a party without ownership gets a defined, time-limited right to exploit a recording. Nothing in the gamma. report, even taken at face value, claimed gamma. owned or licensed anything Asake made. It claimed only that gamma. moved the file to the stores. Whether that arrangement was ever exclusive, worldwide, or long-term was never stated by the one named source in the story.

gamma. does have a genuine, separately documented African operation. It named Nigerian music executive Larry Gaaga as Vice President and General Manager for Africa and opened offices including one in Lagos, part of an expansion covered by Billboard in August 2024 that also named South African executives Sipho Dlamini and Naomi Campbell in advisory and leadership roles for the region. The company was a plausible distributor for a Nigerian artist’s single in mid-2025. That gamma. has an Africa business is not in dispute here. Whether it kept Asake’s is.

What the releases since have actually carried

This desk checked the copyright line on every Asake release traceable in commercial catalogue data from January 2026 forward, the period closest to and following the reported gamma. deal.

REAL, Vol. 1, a joint EP with Wizkid released 22 January 2026, carries three label credits in an independent rights registry: EMPIRE, GIRAN Republic, and Starboy Entertainment Ltd., Wizkid’s own company. “Worship,” a single with DJ Snake released 19 March 2026, carries two: EMPIRE and GIRAN Republic. M$NEY, Asake’s fourth studio album, released 30 April 2026, carries the same two, verified directly on both Apple Music’s and Audiomack’s listings: “℗ 2026 GIRAN Republic / EMPIRE.” “Badman Gangsta,” the single that reportedly triggered the gamma. reporting in the first place, now sits as track eleven on M$NEY, under that same GIRAN Republic / EMPIRE credit, with no separate gamma.-era release surviving in the commercial catalogue data checked for this record.

Across three separate releases spanning four months, in the period immediately following the reported gamma. deal, gamma. appears nowhere. EMPIRE, the company Asake was reported to have left, appears on all three, next to his own imprint.

Where this record stands

Two things can both be true and this record treats them that way rather than picking one. TurnTable Charts is a credible trade outlet and its named source, a gamma Africa executive speaking on the record, is a real, on-the-record confirmation that a distribution arrangement existed for at least one release in mid-2025. That is not manufactured; nothing here contradicts that a “Badman Gangsta”-era arrangement with gamma. happened. Separately, and independently verified through commercial catalogue data rather than through any secondary report, every Asake release traceable from January 2026 onward carries an EMPIRE credit, not a gamma. one. If a gamma. distribution arrangement existed, the documented output since does not show it continuing, and it does not show gamma. holding an exclusive claim on Giran Republic’s catalogue in the way “global distribution deal,” the framing several outlets used beyond the original TurnTable Charts report, would suggest.

What this record cannot establish: whether the gamma. arrangement was ever exclusive or global rather than single-specific; whether it lapsed, was never renewed past that one release, or ran in parallel with an unreported EMPIRE arrangement the whole time; or why “Badman Gangsta” itself changed credit between its July 2025 release and its April 2026 appearance on M$NEY. gamma. did not respond to the specific question of exclusivity or duration in the only interview located for this record, and no statement from gamma., EMPIRE, or Asake’s team addressing the current state of the relationship was found anywhere on gamma.’s own site, EMPIRE’s site, or Giran Republic’s public channels.

What this means for artists

A distribution deal is the easiest of all label relationships to enter and to exit, precisely because it transfers no rights. That is exactly why it is the hardest one for outsiders, including trade press, to verify at any single moment: there is no filing, no registry, no ownership record that settles it, only whichever credit happens to sit on the most recent release. If you want to know who is actually distributing an artist’s music right now, check the copyright line on their newest release, not the announcement from six months ago. Announcements describe an intention at a point in time; the ℗ line describes what a label put in the actual delivery to stores, and it is updated every time something new goes out.

For artists running their own imprint the way Asake now runs Giran Republic, this also illustrates the value of naming your own company first. Every credit checked here, gamma.-era and EMPIRE-era alike, lists Giran Republic as a co-credit, never as a subordinate line. Whichever distributor sits alongside it changes; the imprint the artist owns does not.

Limits of this record. The August 2025 gamma. report rests on a single trade account, TurnTable Charts, published 1 August 2025, which is the only located source containing a named, on-record quote from a gamma Africa executive; no press release from gamma., EMPIRE, or Giran Republic was located confirming or denying it. Copyright-line evidence for “Why Love” (12 February 2025) was read via Apple Music and Spotify listings. Label credits for REAL, Vol. 1, “Worship,” and M$NEY were independently verified through a rights-registry query (MusicBrainz) and cross-checked directly against Apple Music’s and Audiomack’s own listings for M$NEY. No standalone commercial release record for the original July 2025 version of “Badman Gangsta” was located in the registry checked; it now exists only as an album track credited to GIRAN Republic and EMPIRE. gamma.’s own website was read directly on 25 August 2026 and did not list Asake or Giran Republic among named artists or partners, though the site’s roster listing is not exhaustive by design. Whether an exclusivity term, territory, or financial consideration was attached to either the reported gamma. arrangement or the current EMPIRE credit could not be established from any source reviewed; no party has disclosed a figure.