Def Jam Recordings Signed Nasty C in March 2020 via a Universal Music Africa Joint Venture. His 2025 Album Free Shows He Left.

Def Jam Recordings signed South African rapper Nasty C on 26 March 2020, in a deal Def Jam’s then interim chairman and chief executive Jeff Harleston described as an exclusive joint venture with Universal Music Africa. The album that deal produced, Zulu Man with Some Power, carries a phonogram credit naming only Universal Music (Pty) Ltd South Africa, not Def Jam. By his 2023 album, I Love It Here, the credit had grown to name both parties jointly. In February 2025, Nasty C told an interviewer he was independent. His fifth album, Free, released that September, carries a phonogram credit naming only Tall Racks, the label he founded in 2018. No party has disclosed what the joint venture paid, what it was worth, or on what terms it ended.

What the 2020 announcement actually said

The signing was reported first by Music Business Worldwide, which quoted Harleston directly: “Nasty C is a unique and forward-thinking artist who is at the forefront of a new generation of rappers emerging from Africa.” Nasty C’s own statement was equally on the record: “It’s powerful to be a part of the Def Jam family. It’s an iconic record label and has made the careers of many of the artists I look up to.” The report described the arrangement as an exclusive deal with Def Jam Recordings “via a joint venture with Universal Music Africa,” and noted Nasty C had already spent four consecutive years as Apple Music’s most-streamed South African artist, built substantially on his 2018 album Strings and Bling, released through Universal Music South Africa before the Def Jam deal existed.

That is a description of a joint venture between two named corporate entities, Def Jam Recordings, a New York hip-hop label operating as a division of UMG Recordings, Inc., and Universal Music (Pty) Ltd South Africa, the Johannesburg operating company that had already worked with Nasty C for years. It is not, on its own, a statement of who holds the copyright in the recordings that followed, what equity either side holds in the other, or what Def Jam paid, if anything, to bring an already-major South African artist under its banner. No source located for this piece, including the original announcement, discloses financial terms, an advance, a royalty split or a length of term.

What the copyright line shows, and where it does not match the story

Zulu Man with Some Power, released 28 August 2020 as the first album under the new arrangement, is where the joint venture’s rights structure should be visible. Its phonogram credit, read directly from Apple Music’s own catalogue page for the album, is: “℗ 2020 Universal Music (Pty) Ltd South Africa.” Def Jam Recordings is not named in that line at all, despite every trade report at the time, and Def Jam’s own framing of the deal, describing this as a Def Jam signing. A credit naming one joint-venture partner and not the other is not proof that Def Jam holds no interest in the recording; UMG’s own internal accounting is not visible from a phonogram line. It is, however, a gap between how the deal was announced and how the resulting record was actually credited, and this desk has found no source that explains it.

By I Love It Here, Nasty C’s fourth studio album, released 15 September 2023, the credit had changed to name both parties: “℗ 2023 Def Jam Recordings, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc. & Universal Music (Pty) Ltd South Africa,” verified directly on Apple Music’s UK catalogue page for the album. That is the clearest single piece of documentary evidence in this record: three years into the arrangement, Def Jam is now explicitly and jointly credited alongside its South African partner on Nasty C’s sound recordings, in a way it was not on the 2020 album that launched the deal.

In February 2025, Nasty C told an interviewer he was independent and no longer affiliated with any record label, saying the shift gave him freedom from what he called a “long chain of command.” In a later interview with Sowetan, he was more direct about the decision itself: “I have walked away from a hazy situation where I put too much of my trust in other people. Now, the trust is all in myself.” He did not name Def Jam or Universal Music in that quote, and no source located for this piece has him doing so on the record. His fifth album, Free, released 12 September 2025, is where the change registers on paper: its phonogram credit, verified directly on Apple Music, reads “℗ 2025 Tall Racks” alone. No Universal Music or Def Jam name appears anywhere on it.

A label that became something else

Tall Racks itself is not a stable reference point across this story. Nasty C founded it in Johannesburg in August 2018 as a conventional record label, with South African singer-songwriter Rowlene as its first signing. In 2025, alongside his own departure from Def Jam, he rebuilt it as a self-service digital distribution and royalty platform for other independent artists, offering global DSP delivery, automated royalty splits and a payout wallet, with artists retaining full rights to their own music. Free is credited to that rebuilt version of Tall Racks, and Tall Racks is independently owned by Nasty C, with no outside label or distributor named as a partner in its current form in any source checked. That a former major-label joint-venture artist now owns a distribution platform is a separate fact from what became of his masters from the Def Jam years, and this piece does not conflate the two.

What is established, and what is not

Established: Def Jam Recordings and Universal Music (Pty) Ltd South Africa signed Nasty C to a joint venture announced 26 March 2020, by named executives on the record. The phonogram credit on his 2020 album names only Universal Music South Africa. The phonogram credit on his 2023 album names Def Jam and Universal Music South Africa jointly. Nasty C described himself as independent from February 2025, and his September 2025 album carries a phonogram credit naming only his own label, Tall Racks.

Not established, in any source checked, including the original Music Business Worldwide report, Def Jam’s own public statements, and Nasty C’s own interviews: any financial terms of the 2020 joint venture, any equity split between Def Jam and Universal Music South Africa, a stated date or mechanism for when the arrangement ended, or what became of the rights to Zulu Man with Some Power, I Love It Here and their singles once Nasty C left. His own public statements explain why he wanted out, citing creative control and release delays, not the contractual mechanics of the exit.

What this means for artists

The gap between Nasty C’s 2020 signing and 2020 phonogram credit is a reminder that a joint-venture press release describes an A&R and development relationship, not necessarily the copyright split that governs the first record it produces; the two lined up on paper only from 2023. And as with several other artists this desk has tracked, the relationship’s end generated none of the fanfare of its start. No joint statement, no trade report, no named executive marked the moment Nasty C left Def Jam. The only document that dates it precisely is the phonogram line on his next album. An artist weighing a joint-venture offer from a major label should ask, in writing, whether the copyright credit on day one will actually match the venture as announced, and should not assume that whatever ends the deal will be announced at all.