Cruel Santino’s masters have changed hands twice in six years, and nobody announced either move. The Nigerian alté artist, born Osayaba Andrew Ize-Iyamu, built his 2020 relaunch around a widely reported joint venture: his own label, Monster Boy, paired with Interscope Records. That pairing is gone from his catalogue. His current album, released 5 November 2026, carries a different owner entirely, and a different major-label partner.
This publication read the phonogram (℗) line on all 26 of Cruel Santino’s commercially released recordings, in Apple Music’s own catalogue metadata, corroborated against Deezer’s album API and MusicBrainz’s rights registry. The chronology those three independent sources agree on does not match the version most coverage of his career repeats.
What changed hands, and when#
Between 2016 and 2019, before any major-label involvement, Cruel Santino’s releases carry a self-owned credit: “℗ 2016 Cruel Santino” on his debut album Suzie’s Funeral, then “℗ 2018 Monster Boy” and “℗ 2019 Monster Boy” as his own imprint takes over the position.
On 19 June 2020, the single “End Of The Wicked” became the first Cruel Santino release to carry a new line: “℗ 2020 Monster Boy, under exclusive license to Interscope Records.” That date lines up exactly with the trade coverage of the week, which reported Cruel Santino announcing a “joint venture” between Monster Boy and Interscope. His sophomore album Subaru Boys: FINAL HEAVEN (3 March 2022) carries the same structure.
Read closely, the credit line is not describing a 50/50 joint venture. It names Monster Boy as the licensor and Interscope as the licensee: Monster Boy holds the masters, Interscope holds a license to release them. That is a materially different relationship from equal co-ownership, even where press coverage, including coverage this desk has no reason to doubt was accurate at the time, used the looser term.
Interscope’s name then disappears. The next dated release this desk could find, “Showmetheway!!” on 10 February 2023, already reads “℗ 2023 Monster Boy” alone. No release in between carries both names, and no release after carries Interscope’s at all. Nothing in any source, press, social media or filing, states when or why that license ended. Monster Boy continues as sole credited owner through “Triology” (7 February 2025) and “Subaru Live Radio” (25 February 2025, credited “℗ 2025 Subaru Live Radio / Monster Boy”).
Then, starting 6 August 2026, with the single “International Collector / Oz.”, the credit changes again, and this time Monster Boy’s name does not appear at all:
“Native Sounds Ltd/Warner Records, ℗ 2026 Native Sounds Ltd/Warner Records Inc., under exclusive license from Candles Media Production Limited.”
That exact line, word for word, now covers every Cruel Santino release this desk could find: “Big Drop” (15 October 2026), “Heaven is in Pain,” “Siesta” and “Rolen” (all 4 November 2026), and the new album K.O.T.B – The Bomberman Chronicles (5 November 2026). A company called Candles Media Production Limited, a name that appears nowhere in this desk’s prior reporting or in any music-trade coverage it could find, now occupies the position Monster Boy held for roughly six years. Native Sounds Ltd, paired with Warner Records, now occupies the position Interscope held for roughly two.
Three releases that fit neither chain#
The Monster Boy years were not exclusive. Three Cruel Santino releases inside that window name neither Monster Boy nor Interscope: the single “Manhattan” (8 December 2022, credited “℗ 2022 NATIVE Records”), “And Just Like That” (21 July 2023, credited “℗ 2023 YE Records Ltd”), and “The Shift” featuring Knucks (10 July 2025, credited “℗ 2025 VVS Recording under exclusive license to NQ Records”). Whether these were one-off side licenses, features cleared through someone else’s imprint, or something else, this desk could not establish. They are recorded here as a finding, not resolved.
One of those names deserves a direct caution. “NATIVE Records,” the Lagos label that is a division of the media company behind The NATIVE, holds a separately documented, publicly announced joint venture with Def Jam Recordings, reported on by this publication before. The “Native Sounds Ltd” that appears on Cruel Santino’s 2026 credit line is not confirmed to be the same company. A Beatport catalogue listing this desk checked pairs the name “Native Sounds” with Def Jam Recordings on a 2023 single by ODUMODUBLVCK that also features Cruel Santino, which only deepens the ambiguity: the name has now turned up next to two different majors, Def Jam and Warner, at two different times. This record does not assert these are the same entity rotating label partners, two unrelated companies that share a name, or any other relationship. It is unresolved, and readers should treat “Native Sounds” and “NATIVE Records” as separate claims until someone can show otherwise.
The publishing side is a separate, older story#
None of this touches Cruel Santino’s publishing. In February 2021, Warner Chappell Music entered a publishing venture with LVRN, the Atlanta label, covering the roster LVRN calls “the Monster Boys”: Cruel Santino, GMK and Genio Bambino. The NATIVE‘s own reporting at the time quoted Genio directly (“It’s a really big deal for the Monster Boys and we are all really excited about it”) and named LVRN co-founders Tunde Balogun and Justice Baiden. That deal is five years old and this desk has not re-verified whether it is still in force. It is cited here only for what it documented in 2021, and it should not be confused with the masters position this piece tracks: a songwriter’s publisher and a recording’s phonogram owner are two different rights, and Cruel Santino’s catalogue shows them moving on entirely separate timelines.
Who are Candles Media Production Limited and Native Sounds Ltd?#
Unresolved. Both names carry the “Limited”/”Ltd” suffix common to UK and Nigerian company registration, but a UK Companies House search for either, run by this desk on 9 November 2026, returns no results. The same search for “Monster Boy” also returns nothing, which has been true of that name throughout its six years on Cruel Santino’s catalogue. Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission has no public search API, so a Nigerian register check was not possible from this server; a manual CAC lookup is the outstanding step. Jurisdiction, officers and ownership of all three names, including whether Cruel Santino himself holds equity in the company currently named as owner of his masters, could not be determined from any source this desk could reach.
What this means for artists#
Three things are worth taking from this, beyond one artist’s catalogue.
First, “joint venture” is a press release’s word, not necessarily the deal’s structure. The 2020 Monster Boy/Interscope announcement was widely and, so far as this desk can tell, accurately reported as a joint venture. The phonogram line underneath it reads as a license: one company owns, the other releases under permission. Both things can be true of the same real-world arrangement. An artist signing anything described as a “joint venture” should ask, specifically, who ends up named as the owner on the actual recordings, because that is the detail a press release rarely spells out and a credit line cannot hide.
Second, licenses end quietly. Nothing in the public record marks the point at which Interscope’s name dropped off Cruel Santino’s releases, sometime between March 2022 and February 2023. No statement, no trade story, no social post that this desk could find. For an artist, that is the ordinary texture of a licensing deal: it can lapse, be declined for renewal, or simply not get renewed, without anyone owing the public an announcement. The only record of it is the metadata the next release carries.
Third, a new company with no public footprint can become the owner of a working artist’s masters overnight, and an artist’s own catalogue may be the only place that fact is recorded. Candles Media Production Limited holds no prior press mention this desk located and no UK company registration. Whether it is a newly formed personal holding company for Cruel Santino himself, a vehicle tied to the new Warner arrangement, or something else again is not established. For any artist watching their own credit lines change hands between unfamiliar names, the lesson from this catalogue is the same one the Lojay and Koratori Music case already set for this desk: ask who the new name is before assuming it is simply an admin reshuffle.
This desk could not establish what, if anything, was paid in either arrangement described above. No consideration, advance, royalty rate or equity stake appears in any source. Afrobeats Wire will update this record if Cruel Santino, Monster Boy, Interscope Records, Warner Records, Native Sounds Ltd or Candles Media Production Limited make a statement.
