Zinoleesky’s Masters Carried Marlian Music for Seven Years. Since April 2026 the Credit Reads Zinodict Music, and Naira Marley Has Never Confirmed the Split.

Zinoleesky’s new masters carry a company that did not exist before this year. For seven years, every recording he released, from a 2020 freestyle EP through a Top 10 album in 2025, carried one phonogram credit: Marlian Music, the Lagos label Naira Marley built around him, MohBad, CBlvck and Fabian Blu in December 2019. On 24 April 2026 that credit changed. Zinoleesky’s single “Nostalgia” carries a different name: Zinodict Music, an imprint he announced the same week, on his own Instagram account, in the same post where he said he was leaving.

Marlian Music has not confirmed the split. Naira Marley has not confirmed it either. Neither has disputed it. Four and a half months on, from an artist who was the label’s flagship act through most of 2025, that silence is itself part of the record.

What actually changed, and when

Zinoleesky, born Oniyide Azeez, signed to Marlian Records on 23 December 2019, one of four founding acts alongside MohBad, CBlvck and Fabian Blu, at the Eko Hotel concert where Naira Marley launched the label a week later. The relationship produced an EP, two studio albums and a run of singles, most recently “Celine Dion” on 3 October 2025. Apple Music’s own catalogue page for that single reads, in the copyright footer, “℗ 2025 Marlian Music.” The same line appears on his 2025 album Gen Z and on the 2022 album Grit and Lust. Every Zinoleesky release checked for this record, from 2020 through October 2025, carries the identical credit.

Rumours of friction between Zinoleesky and Naira Marley first circulated in November 2025. At the time, Zinoleesky denied them and reaffirmed his loyalty to Marlian in public. That denial makes the reversal five months later a change of position, not a confirmation of a plan already public.

On 23 or 24 April 2026, depending on the outlet, Zinoleesky posted his exit on Instagram, in his own words, without naming Naira Marley directly: “I am standing up not just for myself but for every artist who has ever felt powerless. We deserve better.” Nigerian trade press reported the statement the same week. Within days he unveiled Zinodict Music and released “Nostalgia” under it. Apple Music’s catalogue page for that release carries a different line: “℗ 2026 Zinodict Music.”

What the credit line does, and does not, prove

A phonogram credit is a factual assertion by whoever submitted the metadata to the distributor, not a court finding and not a contract. Read narrowly, what it shows here is this: whoever controls the ingestion of Zinoleesky’s releases to Apple Music changed, in the same week he announced his own label and said he was done with Marlian. That is consistent with an artist gaining, or asserting, control over his new recordings. It is not proof of what happens to the seven years of Marlian-credited catalogue behind him.

No document obtained for this record, filing, statement or otherwise, states what becomes of Zinoleesky’s 2019-to-2025 masters now that he has left. They still carry the Marlian Music credit today, unchanged, on every DSP checked. An artist leaving a label does not, on its own, move a single existing master anywhere. If Marlian Music continues to hold and monetise that catalogue indefinitely, nothing in the public record would currently contradict it, and nothing confirms it either.

This is the same shape of story this desk has recorded before at Marlian’s Nigerian peers: a credit line moves the moment an artist calls the relationship over, and the label says nothing, on the record, in either direction. It happened with Crayon and Mavin-adjacent Olodum Ent in March 2026. It is happening again here.

The silence has a context

Marlian Music has operated under sustained public scrutiny since MohBad, one of its four founding signees, died in September 2023, an event that produced police involvement, coroner proceedings and continuing public argument about the label’s conduct toward him. Zinoleesky was the label’s most visible remaining act through 2025. His departure, arriving on the two-year mark of MohBad’s death almost to the week, is the kind of exit a label with a cleaner story to tell would ordinarily contest or explain. Marlian Music has done neither. That does not establish what happened between Zinoleesky and Naira Marley behind closed doors. It does establish that the label chose not to contest his account of it in public, at a moment when contesting it would have been easy if his account were wrong.

What this means for artists

A new imprint on your next release does not undo the credit line on your last one. Zinodict Music now sits on Zinoleesky’s new recordings. Nothing obtained for this record moves his Marlian-era catalogue anywhere. If you are leaving a label, get the status of your existing masters in writing, because starting a new company does not retroactively change who is credited on the old one.

Your own release pages are the fastest fact-check you have. Zinoleesky’s phonogram credit is public, free, and changed the same week he said it would. Any artist wondering whether an announced exit has actually taken effect on the rights side can check exactly this: the ℗ line on the newest release, compared against the one before it.

A label’s silence is not a denial. Four and a half months of no statement from Marlian Music or Naira Marley is not confirmation that Zinoleesky’s account is accurate in every detail, but it is not a rebuttal either. Artists watching this dispute for cues about their own contracts should note what the silence does not do: it does not tell you what your own termination clause requires, and only your own contract does.

Founding a label is not the same as owning a catalogue. Zinodict Music gives Zinoleesky a corporate home for future work. It says nothing about whether he negotiated any reversion, buy-out or continued share of his back catalogue on the way out, because no source obtained here says so either.

How this was verified

Primary source: Nigerian trade outlet Leadership, 24 April 2026, reporting and directly quoting Zinoleesky’s own Instagram statement announcing his departure. Corroboration: a second contemporaneous Nigerian trade report of the same announcement and the Zinodict Music launch; Apple Music’s own catalogue pages for “Nostalgia” (2026), Gen Z (2025) and “Celine Dion” (2025), each read directly for its phonographic copyright line rather than trusted from a summary; and Zinoleesky’s own English-language discography record, checked on 8 September 2026, which lists Marlian for his 2022 and 2025 albums and Zinodict Music from “Nostalgia” onward. No Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission filing was checked for either company: Nigeria’s company register has no public search interface. No statement from Marlian Music, Naira Marley or Zinodict Music beyond Zinoleesky’s own post was located as of 8 September 2026.

Quick answers

Did Zinoleesky leave Marlian Music?

Yes, by his own account. He announced the split on Instagram in late April 2026, after seven years signed to the label. Neither Marlian Music nor Naira Marley has confirmed or disputed it.

Who owns Zinoleesky’s masters now?

Split by date. Releases from 2020 through October 2025 carry the phonogram credit Marlian Music, unchanged. His first release after the split, “Nostalgia” in April 2026, carries Zinodict Music, his own new imprint. No document shows the earlier catalogue moving anywhere.

What kind of deal was this?

Not a deal in the transactional sense. No sale, licence, joint venture or settlement has been announced or documented. It is an artist’s exit from a label, evidenced by a change in phonogram credit and his own public statement.

How much money was involved?

Not disclosed. No severance figure, buy-out, unrecouped balance or advance appears in any source obtained.