Bruce Melodie’s Masters Carried an S-Curve Records Credit for 15 Months. Every Release Since Names His Own Rwandan Label Instead.

For fifteen months, every commercial release Bruce Melodie put out carried a phonographic credit naming S-Curve Records, the New York label behind his 2023 collaboration with Shaggy, either as an exclusive licensee or as the rightsholder outright. Read directly in Apple’s and Deezer’s own catalogue metadata, that credit held from the single “When She’s Around (Funga Macho)” on 27 October 2023 through the album Colorful Generation on 17 January 2025. No release since has carried an S-Curve credit on either platform. From July 2025 onward, his catalogue instead names 1:55 African Music Ltd, the Kigali-based company that has managed his career since 2022, the same company S-Curve’s own press release named as his representation when the Shaggy deal was first arranged.

What the credit line shows, release by release

Before October 2023, Bruce Melodie’s catalogue was self-credited, reading simply “℗ Bruce Melodie” back to 2014. That changes with “When She’s Around (Funga Macho),” his duet with Shaggy, released 27 October 2023. Apple’s own catalogue metadata for the single reads “℗ 2023 Bruce Melodie under exclusive license to S-Curve Records.” Deezer’s label field for the same release independently reads “S-Curve Records.” The same exclusive-license wording covers the remix package that January and the French-language version, “Quand Elle Est Là,” that February.

From the single “SOWE” on 19 July 2024 onward, the credit simplifies: Apple drops the “exclusive license” language and reads “℗ 2024 S-Curve Records” outright, a formula that repeats on “Iyo Foto,” his September 2024 feature with Bien, “Niki Minaji” with Blaq Diamond that December, and the full-length album Colorful Generation on 17 January 2025, which carries “℗ 2025 S-Curve Records” on Apple and the matching label credit on Deezer. Seven releases in total, each checked directly against both platforms’ own catalogue data, carry the S-Curve credit without interruption across fifteen months.

The reversal is just as clean. “Kuba Nisindiye,” released 24 July 2025, carries no S-Curve credit on either platform. Apple’s listing for the release (under a secondary artist ID Bruce Melodie’s catalogue is split across) reads “1:55 African Music LTD / ONErpm.” Deezer’s label field independently reads “1:55 African Music Ltd.” ONErpm, the independent distributor founded by Emmanuel Zunz, appears here and on later releases as the distribution partner named alongside 1:55 AM, not as a rights holder in its own right. “Pom Pom,” released 1 January 2026, carries a matching “℗ 2026 1:55 AM” credit on Apple and “1:55 AM” on Deezer. “Hamwe Natwe,” his most recent release checked for this record (29 July 2026), reverts further still to a plain “Bruce Melodie” self-credit on both platforms, with no label named at all.

One release in the reverted window does not fit cleanly. “Munyakazi,” released 16 December 2025, carries a “℗ 2025 Bruce Melodie” self-credit on Apple’s main artist page, while Deezer’s label field for the identical release reads “1:55 AM.” This desk cannot resolve which line is correct from the sources checked, and does not attempt to. A second release, “Détail” (13 May 2026), shows a three-way mismatch: Apple’s main artist page credits “Bruce Melodie,” a second Apple artist ID used for some of his catalogue credits “AFRICA ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC,” and Deezer credits “Bruce Melodie/ONErpm.” Apple appears to split his discography across at least four separate artist IDs with inconsistent copyright strings between them, a known data quirk on the platform rather than evidence of a fourth company. Deezer’s single canonical artist page, ID 6905659, is treated as the authoritative discography list for this record; four additional Bruce Melodie-featuring tracks found on that same artist’s release history, “Ogera,” “Hama,” “Bella” and “The One,” are guest appearances on other artists’ own releases once checked at the album level, and are excluded here as not his own catalogue.

How S-Curve Records found him

The license did not arise from a dedicated signing announcement. The only document locating its origin is S-Curve’s own press release for the Shaggy single, which describes the label’s founder hearing “Funga Macho” and reaching out, in its own words, by having his team “contact his team 1:55 AM Ltd” to arrange the collaboration. That sentence names 1:55 AM, not S-Curve, as Bruce Melodie’s representation at the point the relationship with S-Curve began. The same release was syndicated by Universal Music Canada, which distributes S-Curve’s output in that market, carrying matching quotes from both Shaggy and Bruce Melodie but no further detail on rights, territory or term. The album press release for Colorful Generation, issued the following January, states the project is “available to stream worldwide” and links to an Orchard-hosted smart link, but likewise discloses no deal terms.

Who S-Curve Records actually is

S-Curve Records was founded in 2000 by Steve Greenberg, a former Mercury Records and Columbia Records executive who remains its chief executive. Greenberg sold the label’s recording and publishing assets to BMG Rights Management in November 2015, reported at the time at approximately ten million dollars, and stayed on at BMG to run the imprint before departing in 2021. That June, he relaunched the S-Curve name in a worldwide label partnership with Disney Music Group: S-Curve leads artist signings, A&R and marketing, while Disney’s Hollywood Records handles promotion, synchronization and distribution. The label’s pre-2015 catalogue, including hits by Baha Men, Joss Stone and Fountains of Wayne, stayed with BMG and was not part of the 2021 relaunch. S-Curve’s current roster, per the label’s own website checked for this record, lists Andy Grammer, Daisy the Great, Netta, The Moss, Yola and Bruce Melodie, still present despite the fifteen-month-old credit trail showing otherwise.

The move back to Kigali

1:55 African Music Ltd is an independently founded and led Rwandan label and management company, run by Gael Karomba, known publicly as “Coach Gael.” Rwandan press coverage places the company active from at least 2022, when Bruce Melodie joined after leaving the Tanzanian label Cloud9 Entertainment. Karomba has managed Bruce Melodie’s international touring, brand partnerships and recording career since, a management role that, per S-Curve’s own account, continued through and past the S-Curve license rather than being displaced by it. 1:55 AM’s roster also includes producer Element, also known as Eleeh, and Kenny Sol; Ross Khana was previously signed and has since departed, per Rwandan outlets. No source checked names an outside investor or corporate parent for 1:55 African Music Ltd.

What this means for artists

The S-Curve credit on Bruce Melodie’s catalogue looks, from the outside, like the kind of story that gets written as “African star signs to US label.” The phonographic record tells a narrower and more specific story: an African artist’s home management company arranged a license covering a defined run of releases with a US label, kept operating as his primary representation throughout, and resumed sole billing on the catalogue once that run ended, all without either side issuing a statement describing the change. For another artist evaluating a similar opportunity, the lesson sits in that quiet handoff. A license with a Western label does not have to mean the artist’s own company disappears from the picture, and the catalogue credit, not the press release or the roster page, is the document that actually tells you whose name sits on the masters at any given moment. S-Curve’s roster page still lists Bruce Melodie today. His own catalogue has not listed S-Curve since January 2025. Both things are true at once, and only one of them updates automatically.

Limits of this record. Every release date, artist name and phonographic credit in this record was read directly from Apple’s own catalogue metadata via the iTunes Search and Lookup API, across four artist IDs associated with Bruce Melodie (1478658640, 1658002261, 6769134408 and 882779282), and independently cross-checked against Deezer’s artist discography and per-album label field for his canonical Deezer artist page (ID 6905659). S-Curve Records’ founding, 2015 sale to BMG and 2021 Disney Music Group relaunch were confirmed via Music Business Worldwide and Variety, both reporting the relaunch with direct Steve Greenberg quotes. The origin of the Shaggy collaboration and the naming of 1:55 AM Ltd as Bruce Melodie’s representation come from S-Curve’s own press release, corroborated by its Universal Music Canada syndication. 1:55 African Music Ltd’s founding and Gael Karomba’s role are sourced to Rwandan press coverage of Bruce Melodie’s 2022 departure from Cloud9 Entertainment; no source checked gives an exact founding date for 1:55 AM. No amount, royalty rate, term length or territory was disclosed by S-Curve Records, 1:55 African Music Ltd, ONErpm, Bruce Melodie or Shaggy in any document checked for this record. The “Munyakazi” and “Détail” credit inconsistencies described above are reported, not resolved.