Deal sheet
- Status
- Undisclosed and unannounced. This is a credit-line relationship surfaced from release metadata, not a confirmed, announced or documented agreement. No party has ever publicly announced it, confirmed it or described it. Nothing obtained establishes whether the arrangement is ongoing, lapsed or terminated, and no current status should be inferred from this record.
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- Neville Records
- Amount
- Not disclosed. No settlement value, advance, royalty rate, revenue split or any other financial term is evidenced by any source obtained. No contract, filing or statement from any party discloses consideration.
The figure of 100,000 naira appears in the record and must not be read as a deal value. It is a disputed allegation made by one side only: in a published interview of 15 September 2022, Berri Tiga said that after a split had been discussed, "I got a call from Sydney talker and Carter the next day telling me that they are going to pay me off" with one hundred thousand naira, which he rejected. A separate published report repeats the allegation that Carter Efe and Sydney Talker offered Berri Tiga "the sum of a hundred thousand naira to pay him off for the song." No party has confirmed that any such payment was offered, accepted or made. It is not the value of this or any transaction and is recorded here only so the figure is not mistaken for one.
- Rights covered
- Sound recording credit on one single only. The commercial retail release of "Machala" by Carter Efe featuring Berri Tiga, dated 16 September 2022, names NEVILLE RECORDS in both the phonogram credit field ("(P) NEVILLE RECORDS") and the copyright credit field ("(C) NEVILLE RECORDS"), against ISRC QZMEP2257023 and UPC 197086361276. The retail catalogue entry for the same UPC carries the label field "NEVILLE RECORDS".
That is the precise extent of what is evidenced. A phonogram and copyright credit records who is asserted to hold copyright in the delivered master. It does not establish whether masters were assigned outright, licensed exclusively, licensed for a term, or merely routed through the label's distribution account. Nothing obtained evidences an exclusive multi-release arrangement, an artist signing of either Carter Efe or Berri Tiga, any publishing or composition right, or any option over future recordings. This record covers the single credit and nothing beyond it.
- Territory
- Not specified in any source. No credit field, catalogue entry or statement obtained states a territorial scope. The release is available through international retail and streaming catalogues, but worldwide availability of a recording is not evidence of a worldwide grant of rights, and this desk draws no territorial conclusion.
- Announced
- 2022-09-16
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- api.deezer.com · Carter Efe's own upload page: datePublished 2022-09-16, ISRC QZMEP2257023, UPC 197086361276, "(P) NEVILLE RECORDS" and "(C) NEVILLE RECORDS", producer "PRODUCER X". Read 3 October 2026. · Berri Tiga's own separate upload of the same recording: UPC 00823375116998, datePublished 2022-07-30, credit "(P) 2026 NEXT / (C) 2026 NEXT", unresolvable. Read 3 October 2026. · Published interview, 15 September 2022, carrying Berri Tiga's verbatim account of the 95-5 and 70-30 split discussions and the alleged 100,000 naira payoff offer. Names no label. Read 3 October 2026. · Trade report on the dispute, describing Sydney Talker as a comedian "who doubles as a label owner" without naming the label, and repeating the 100,000 naira payoff allegation. Read 3 October 2026. · Trade report: song returned to streaming on Friday 16 September 2022; states removal occurred in early September 2022. Read 3 October 2026. · Reference entry: release 29 July 2022, peak #14 US Billboard Afrobeats, #1 debut Apple Music Nigeria Top 100, #2 TurnTable Nigeria Top 100; states removal from Apple and Spotify in August 2022, contradicting the trade report above. Read 3 October 2026. · Report of the Neville Records launch of 20 January 2022, carrying Sydney Talker's verbatim statement, the "The New Town" subtitle, the board-of-directors reference and the Khaid signing. Read 3 October 2026. · Second, independent report of the same 20 January 2022 launch and Khaid signing. Read 3 October 2026.
Read this before citing: A PHONOGRAM LINE IS NOT A CONTRACT. This record rests on the (P) and (C) credit fields of a commercial release and on the label field of its retail catalogue entry. Those fields record who is asserted to own copyright in the delivered master. They do not establish whether masters were assigned, exclusively licensed, licensed for a term, or simply delivered through a label's distribution account. No agreement between any of the parties has been obtained, and none is known to be public.
THE NAME APPEARS NOWHERE IN THE DISPUTE REPORTING. Neville Records is not named in Berri Tiga's published interview of 15 September 2022, not named in the reports of the song's removal or restoration, and not named in any other account of the ownership dispute reviewed. Reporting of the dispute describes Sydney Talker only as a comedian "who doubles as a label owner" without naming the label. The connection between the person named in the dispute and the company named in the credit field is established by the credit field alone. No source states it directly.
TWO PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS CONTRADICT EACH OTHER ON THE REMOVAL DATE. One account states the song was removed from Apple and Spotify in August 2022. Another states the removal happened in early September 2022. This desk could not resolve which is correct and does not adopt either. Both are recorded. The restoration date of Friday 16 September 2022 is consistent across the sources that address it and matches the release date on the retail catalogue entry to the day.
THE OTHER UPLOAD CARRIES A DIFFERENT AND UNRESOLVABLE CREDIT. Berri Tiga's own separate upload of the same recording carries a different UPC (00823375116998), a different internal distributor identifier, a publication date of 30 July 2022, and a credit reading "(P) 2026 NEXT / (C) 2026 NEXT". "NEXT" could not be resolved to any identifiable or findable company by this desk. It is not given a company profile and is not treated as a verified party to anything. The "2026" year in that field is almost certainly a platform metadata artifact rather than a copyright year: the page's own last-updated timestamp is 10 July 2026. No conclusion is drawn from that credit.
NO NIGERIAN CORPORATE REGISTRY EXISTS TO CONFIRM THE COMPANY. Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission has no free public search interface comparable to the Delaware or United Kingdom registers. No registration number, incorporation date, director list or shareholder record for Neville Records has been obtained. The company's legal status is unverified; its existence is evidenced by its own public launch announcement and by this credit line.
THE 100,000 NAIRA FIGURE IS A DISPUTED ALLEGATION, NOT A VALUE. It is one party's account of an offer he says he refused. It is not a settlement sum, not a purchase price and not the value of this or any transaction. See the amount field.
WHY THIS IS FILED AS LICENSING. The site's deal-type vocabulary requires a classification. Licensing is the closest available match to a label-credited master release where no assignment, signing or distribution agreement is evidenced. The classification is this desk's, not any party's, and should not be read as a finding about the legal form of the arrangement.
THE "ANNOUNCED" DATE IS NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT. The date recorded against this deal, 16 September 2022, is the date the Neville Records credit first appears on the restored commercial release, and the release date carried by its retail catalogue entry. There was no public announcement of this arrangement on that date or on any other. No party has ever announced it. The field records when the credit became visible, nothing more.
A record label that no one involved in the “Machala” ownership fight ever publicly mentioned is named as the owner of the recording. When Carter Efe and Berri Tiga’s single returned to streaming services on Friday 16 September 2022, after weeks of a very public argument about who owned what, the version that came back carried a phonogram and copyright credit reading NEVILLE RECORDS. That name appears in no interview, no report and no statement about the dispute. It appears only in the credit field, and it has stayed there.
What the credit fields actually say
The commercial release is a single-track record credited to Carterefe as main artist and Berri Tiga as featured artist, with a release date of 16 September 2022 and UPC 197086361276. The retail catalogue entry for that UPC carries the label field “NEVILLE RECORDS”. The artist’s own upload page for the same recording carries the same UPC, the same release date, ISRC QZMEP2257023, a producer credit reading “PRODUCER X”, and the explicit strings “(P) NEVILLE RECORDS” and “(C) NEVILLE RECORDS”. The two entries agree with each other on every field they share.
That is the whole of the evidence. A (P) line records who is asserted to hold copyright in the delivered master. It does not say whether the master was assigned outright, licensed exclusively, licensed for a fixed term, or simply routed through a label’s distribution account. Nothing obtained resolves which of those it is, and nothing obtained evidences a signing of either artist, any publishing interest, or any right over any other recording.
The date is the finding
The restoration date and the retail release date are the same day: 16 September 2022. The recording had existed publicly since late July, uploaded to each artist’s own page within 48 hours of the other and publicly released on 29 July 2022. It charted hard, reaching number 14 on the US Billboard Afrobeats chart, debuting at number one on the Apple Music Nigeria Top 100 and number two on the TurnTable Nigeria Top 100. Then it was pulled from Apple and Spotify. Two published accounts disagree on when: one says August 2022, the other says early September 2022. This desk could not resolve the contradiction and adopts neither.
What is consistent is the return. The song came back on 16 September 2022, and the version that came back is the one with a label on it. Before the takedown there is no label credit evidenced anywhere in the record. After it, there is.
The other upload says something different
Berri Tiga’s own separate upload of the same recording has never carried the Neville Records credit. It carries a different UPC (00823375116998), a different internal distributor identifier, a publication date of 30 July 2022, and a credit reading “(P) 2026 NEXT / (C) 2026 NEXT”. “NEXT” could not be resolved to any identifiable company. It is given no company profile here and is treated as a party to nothing. The 2026 year is almost certainly a platform metadata artifact rather than a copyright year, since that page’s own last-updated timestamp is 10 July 2026.
What is not established
- Consideration. No advance, royalty rate, split or payment of any kind is disclosed anywhere. The 100,000 naira figure in circulation is one party’s account of an offer he says he refused, not the value of any transaction.
- The legal form. Assignment, exclusive licence, term licence or distribution routing. Not resolved.
- Territory and term. Stated nowhere.
- Whether either artist was signed. Nothing evidences a recording agreement with either Carter Efe or Berri Tiga.
- Publishing. Not addressed by any document reviewed. The credit covers the master only.
- Current status. Nothing establishes whether the arrangement is live, lapsed or over.
- The company’s legal identity. No Nigerian corporate registry record was obtained, because no free public search interface exists.
