Deal sheet
- Status
- Never announced. No party, Cruel Santino, Monster Boy, Interscope, Warner Records, Native Sounds Ltd or Candles Media Production Limited, has issued a statement about any change of phonogram ownership. Established here from delivered catalogue metadata read across two independent platforms (Apple Music/iTunes and Deezer), covering 26 releases from 2016 to 5 November 2026. The date given, 6 August 2026, is the first dated appearance of the new credit line (the single "International Collector / Oz."), not a contract date.
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- Interscope Records, Warner Records Inc., Warner Chappell Music, LVRN (Love Renaissance), Monster Boy, Candles Media Production Limited, Native Sounds Ltd
- Amount
- Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- Master recordings (sound recording copyright). Apple Music's own phonogram (℗) line is read verbatim across Cruel Santino's full discography (26 releases, iTunes artist ID 1514637721):
2016–2019 (self and own imprint): "℗ 2016 Cruel Santino" (Suzie's Funeral); "℗ 2018 Monster Boy" (Freaky, Rapid Fire); "℗ 2019 Monster Boy" (Sparky, Mandy & The Jungle).
19 June 2020 to 3 March 2022 (the widely reported Interscope joint venture): "℗ 2020 Monster Boy, under exclusive license to Interscope Records" (End Of The Wicked); "℗ 2021/2022 Monster Boy, under exclusive license to Interscope Records" (the album Subaru Boys: FINAL HEAVEN, which carries both ℗ years across its two catalogue entries). Monster Boy is named as licensor, Interscope as licensee, not as a 50/50 jointly owned entity, regardless of how the 2020 press announcement described the arrangement.
10 February 2023 to 7 February 2025 (Monster Boy alone, Interscope no longer named): "℗ 2023 Monster Boy" (Showmetheway!!, Holiday Sniping, Cincinnati Pumpin!! EP); "℗ 2025 Monster Boy" (Triology); "℗ 2025 Subaru Live Radio / Monster Boy" (Subaru Live Radio). Three one-off side credits fall inside this window and are NOT part of the Monster Boy chain: "℗ 2022 NATIVE Records" (Manhattan, a single not on Monster Boy at all); "℗ 2023 YE Records Ltd" (And Just Like That); "℗ 2025 VVS Recording under exclusive license to NQ Records" (The Shift, featuring Knucks).
From 6 August 2026 (current): "Native Sounds Ltd/Warner Records, ℗ 2026 Native Sounds Ltd/Warner Records Inc., under exclusive license from Candles Media Production Limited", verbatim and identical, on International Collector / Oz. (6 August 2026), Big Drop (15 October 2026), Heaven is in Pain, Siesta and Rolen (all 4 November 2026) and the album K.O.T.B – The Bomberman Chronicles (5 November 2026). Monster Boy does not appear on any release dated after 7 February 2025. Candles Media Production Limited now holds the position Monster Boy held for roughly six years; Native Sounds Ltd/Warner Records Inc. now holds the licensee position Interscope held for roughly two years.
- Territory
- Not disclosed in any source. The album K.O.T.B – The Bomberman Chronicles is registered to release country US in both Apple's and MusicBrainz's metadata; Cruel Santino is Nigerian and Lagos-based per his own public biography. No territorial split, carve-out or term is stated for either the Monster Boy/Interscope arrangement or the Candles Media Production Limited/Native Sounds/Warner arrangement.
- Announced
- 2026-08-06
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- Apple Music / iTunes catalogue metadata for Cruel Santino (artist 1514637721), read 9 November 2026: 26 releases with per-release phonogram (℗) lines and release dates, giving the full ownership chronology in one document. Classified "registry" per this site's established practice for Apple catalogue metadata endpoints. Key rows verified directly by this desk via live page fetch, not search-engine summary: End Of The Wicked, 19 June 2020, music.apple.com/us/album/subaru-boys-final-heaven/1611848679-adjacent single, reads "℗ 2020 Monster Boy, under exclusive license to Interscope Records"; Subaru Boys: FINAL HEAVEN, 3 March 2022, music.apple.com/us/album/subaru-boys-final-heaven/1611848679, reads "℗ 2021 Monster Boy, under exclusive license to Interscope Records"; Cincinnati Pumpin!! EP, 24 November 2023, music.apple.com/us/album/cincinnati-pumpin-ep/1716856457, reads "℗ 2023 Monster Boy"; K.O.T.B – The Bomberman Chronicles, 5 November 2026, music.apple.com/us/album/k-o-t-b-the-bomberman-chronicles/6821104575, reads "Native Sounds Ltd/Warner Records, ℗ 2026 Native Sounds Ltd/Warner Records Inc., under exclusive license from Candles Media Production Limited". · Deezer artist API, Cruel Santino (artist 95330772), read 9 November 2026: 26 albums/singles/EPs with record_type and release_date. Second platform independently corroborating the release chronology. · Deezer album API, Subaru Boys: FINAL HEAVEN: label "Monster Boy/Interscope Records", UPC 602445033812, release_date 2022-03-03. Independent corroboration of the Interscope-era credit. · Deezer album API, Cincinnati Pumpin!!: label "Monster Boy", UPC 853515153132. Independent corroboration that Interscope's name is gone by this release. · Deezer album API, K.O.T.B – The Bomberman Chronicles: label "Native/Warner Records", UPC 093624814351, release_date 2026-11-05. Note Deezer's label field reads "Native", not the fuller "Native Sounds Ltd" that Apple's phonogram line carries; treated as the same party, consistent with how Deezer's label field is consistently a shortened form elsewhere in this dataset. · Deezer album API, International Collector / Oz.: label "Native/Warner Records", UPC 054391211514, release_date 2026-08-06. First dated appearance of the new credit on either platform. · MusicBrainz rights registry, read 9 November 2026: independently lists label-info "Interscope Records" for Subaru Boys: FINAL HEAVEN (2022-03-03), "Monster Boy" for Cincinnati Pumpin!! (2023-11-24), and "Warner Records"/"Native Sounds" for International Collector / Oz. (2026-08-06). · Trade press, 28 June 2020, read 9 November 2026: reports the announcement as a "joint venture deal with Interscope Records called Monster Boy", published the same week as the single that first carries the "under exclusive license to Interscope Records" phonogram line. The credit line itself shows the legal structure was licensor/licensee (Monster Boy owns, Interscope licenses), not the equal joint ownership the word "joint venture" can imply to a general reader. · Trade press (NATIVE, Lagos), 19 February 2021, read 9 November 2026: reports Warner Chappell Music entered a publishing venture with LVRN (Love Renaissance) covering "the Monster Boys", named as Cruel Santino, GMK and Genio Bambino. Direct quotes: Genio ("It's a really big deal for the Monster Boys and we are all really excited about it"); LVRN co-founders Tunde Balogun and Justice Baiden. This is a PUBLISHING deal, separate from the masters/phonogram position tracked in this record, and this record makes no claim about its current status. · UK Companies House, searched 9 November 2026: "No results found" for Monster Boy. · UK Companies House, searched 9 November 2026: "No results found" for Candles Media Production. · UK Companies House, searched 9 November 2026: "No results found" for Native Sounds. · Same Apple catalogue document: a separate ODUMODUBLVCK-led single featuring Cruel Santino and Bella Shmurda carries "℗ 2023 ODUMODUBLVCK/NATIVE Records/Def Jam Recordings, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.". This shows the name "Native Sounds" (per Beatport catalogue listings for other Nigerian artists) and "NATIVE Records" have separately been paired with Def Jam/UMG in the past, which is why this record does not assume "Native Sounds Ltd" on Cruel Santino's 2026 credit is either the same entity as NATIVE Records (parent: The NATIVE, Lagos) or unconnected to it.
Read this before citing: NO TRANSACTION IS RECORDED HERE. No party has announced a sale, assignment, termination, renewal or signing. This record documents two changes in the phonogram owner and licensee named on a catalogue, established from delivered metadata. What happened between the parties, and when any contract was actually signed, is not disclosed anywhere this desk could reach.
NO CONSIDERATION IS DISCLOSED. No advance, royalty rate, equity stake, fee or cash figure appears in any source for either arrangement. "Not disclosed" is the complete answer.
"JOINT VENTURE" WAS THE PRESS'S WORD, NOT THE CREDIT LINE'S. Trade coverage of the 2020 deal, and Wikipedia's summary of it, both use "joint venture" to describe Monster Boy and Interscope. The phonogram line itself is a licensor/licensee structure: "Monster Boy, under exclusive license to Interscope Records". A joint venture can still produce a licensing credit line like this one; the two descriptions are not necessarily in conflict. But a reader relying on the word "joint venture" alone would not learn from it that Monster Boy, not Interscope, is the party named as owning the masters.
THE INTERSCOPE RELATIONSHIP'S END IS UNDATED AND UNEXPLAINED. Interscope last appears in the credit line on the Subaru Boys: FINAL HEAVEN catalogue entries (dated 2021 and 2022 ℗ years, both tied to the 3 March 2022 release). The next dated release, Showmetheway!! (10 February 2023), already carries "Monster Boy" alone. No release in between was found. Nothing in any source found by this desk, press, social media or filing, states that the Interscope arrangement ended, when, or why.
THREE RELEASES IN THE MONSTER BOY WINDOW NAME NEITHER MONSTER BOY NOR INTERSCOPE. Manhattan (NATIVE Records, 8 December 2022), And Just Like That (YE Records Ltd, 21 July 2023) and The Shift (VVS Recording under exclusive license to NQ Records, 10 July 2025) all fall inside the period Monster Boy otherwise controls, each crediting a different one-off company. Whether these are side licensing deals, features with someone else's imprint, or something else is not established; they are recorded here as a finding, not resolved.
"NATIVE SOUNDS" MAY OR MAY NOT BE THE SAME PARTY ACROSS RECORDS. Beatport catalogue listings and this desk's own Apple Music data show the name "Native Sounds"/"NATIVE Records" previously paired with Def Jam Recordings (a UMG company) on a 2023 ODUMODUBLVCK single also featuring Cruel Santino. The 2026 Cruel Santino credit pairs a legally fuller name, "Native Sounds Ltd", with Warner Records instead. This record does not assert these are the same company, the same company working with two different majors over time, or two different companies that happen to share a name. NATIVE Records' own documented, separately published relationship is a joint venture with Def Jam (Afrobeats Wire post 2273); this record does not restate or rely on that piece, and makes no claim that Native Sounds Ltd is NATIVE Records or The NATIVE under another name.
NEITHER CURRENT PARTY'S LEGAL IDENTITY IS RESOLVED. Companies House UK returns no results for "Candles Media Production" or "Native Sounds", despite both carrying the UK-style "Limited"/"Ltd" suffix in their full names. Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission publishes no public search API, so no Nigerian register check was possible; a manual CAC lookup is the outstanding action for both. Ownership of either company, and whether Cruel Santino holds equity in the one that currently owns his masters, could not be determined.
THE WARNER CHAPPELL/LVRN PUBLISHING DEAL IS A SEPARATE RIGHT, NOT RESTATED HERE AS CURRENT. NATIVE's own 2021 reporting, with named executives quoted directly, documents a publishing venture between Warner Chappell Music and LVRN covering the Monster Boys, including Cruel Santino. This record cites that report for what it says about February 2021. It does not re-verify whether that publishing arrangement is still in force in November 2026, and makes no claim about his current publisher.
WHY THIS RECORD USES CATALOGUE METADATA RATHER THAN A FILING. Cruel Santino, Monster Boy, Candles Media Production Limited and Native Sounds Ltd are not SEC registrants and none has a confirmed UK company registration, so no regulatory filing about any of these ownership positions exists to be read. Live Apple Music album pages (fetched directly by this desk, not via a search engine summary) and the Apple/Deezer/MusicBrainz APIs are used in its place.
