Deal sheet
- Status
- Never announced as a single transaction, and this record does not treat it as one. No party — Lyta, Olamide, Naira Marley, YBNL Nation, Marlian Music, Doro Musik Gang, Rafat Music or Azuri — has issued a statement about most of the label-credit changes below. Established here from delivered catalogue metadata read across two independent platforms (Apple Music/iTunes and Deezer), covering Lyta's primary discography from 14 February 2018 to 16 October 2026, cross-checked against the artist's own and his labels' public statements where any exist. The date given, 30 April 2026, is the first dated appearance of the current credit line (the single "Trubul," which names Lyta alone), not a contract date.
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- YBNL Nation, Marlian Music
- Amount
- Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- Master recordings (sound recording copyright). Apple Music's own phonogram (℗) line is read verbatim across Lyta's primary (non-feature) discography, iTunes artist ID 368551457, corroborated independently by Deezer's artist/album API (artist ID 1101078):
14 February 2018 to 19 September 2018 (his debut run as a YBNL Nation act): "℗ 2018 YBNL NATION" on both "Time" (feat. Olamide) and "Selfmade." Deezer's label field for "Time" independently reads "YBNL Nation," UPC 888915560686.
12 July 2019 to 6 December 2019 (after his exit from YBNL): "℗ 2019 Doro Musik Gang" on "Monalisa," his breakout single, and on "Worry." Deezer's label field for "Monalisa" independently reads "Doro Musik Gang," UPC 194525767774.
1 May 2020 (a one-off single, before any new label is named): "℗ 2020 Lyta, distributed by Dvpper" on "Birthday Wish" — Lyta credited as his own phonogram owner, Dvpper named only as distributor.
14 August 2020 to 26 November 2021 (the publicly announced Naira Marley signing): "℗ 2020 Marlian Music" on "Hold Me Down (Omo Gidi)" and "Everybody"; "℗ 2021 Marlian Music, distributed by Dvpper" on "Different Conversation Live 4" and the acoustic version of "Are You Sure?"; "℗ 2021 Marlian Music" on "High Vibration" (feat. Naira Marley). Deezer's label field for "Hold Me Down" independently reads "Marlian Music," UPC 195497006069; for "High Vibration," also "Marlian Music," UPC 196292888737.
27 January 2022 (a one-off single): "℗ 2022 Lyta / Dvpper Music" on "Outside."
13 May 2022 to 10 February 2023 (a new, previously unreported pairing): "℗ 2022 Rafat Music / Dvpper Music" on "Flex," "Formula," "This Side," "Stronger" and the "Stranger" single/EP. Deezer's label field for the "Stranger" EP reads "Dvpper Digital" instead, UPC 766214738770 — the distributor's name alone, without "Rafat Music," the one clear Apple/Deezer divergence found in this catalogue.
6 November 2023 to 14 February 2025 (another new pairing; no public announcement found for the switch away from Rafat Music): "℗ 2023 Lyta / Azuri" on "Butterfly (Sped Up)"; variants reading "Lyta / Azuri" and "Azuri" on the two "Correct" releases; "℗ 2024 Azuri Musics" on "Sabi Boy"; "℗ 2024 Lyta / Azuri" on "Ashluxe," "Dreams" and "Defender"; "℗ 2025 Lyta / Azuri" on "Jami" and "My Queen."
From 30 April 2026 (current): "℗ 2026 Lyta" on "Trubul" and on "Take Your Time" (16 October 2026) — Lyta's own name alone, no label, no distributor credit, for the first time since his 2018 debut run. Deezer's label field for "Trubul" independently reads "Lyta," UPC 825324673712, matching Apple exactly.
- Territory
- Not disclosed in any source for any of the credit-line periods below. All iTunes lookups were queried against the US storefront (country=us), which reflects catalogue availability, not a stated rights territory. Lyta (Opeyemi Babatunde Rahim) is a Lagos-based Nigerian artist per his own public biography and MusicBrainz (artist MBID 13332404-48bd-4175-a956-9a54f77ee10a); no source states a territorial split, carve-out or term for any of the arrangements named in this record.
- Announced
- 2026-04-30
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- Apple Music / iTunes catalogue metadata for Lyta (artist 368551457), read 10 November 2026: 100 releases with per-release phonogram (℗) lines and release dates. Classified "registry" per this site's established practice for Apple catalogue metadata endpoints. Key rows verified directly: "Time" (feat. Olamide), 14 Feb 2018, reads "℗ 2018 YBNL NATION"; "Monalisa," 12 Jul 2019, reads "℗ 2019 Doro Musik Gang"; "Hold Me Down (Omo Gidi)," 14 Aug 2020, reads "℗ 2020 Marlian Music"; "Flex," 13 May 2022, reads "℗ 2022 Rafat Music / Dvpper Music"; "Butterfly (Sped Up)," 6 Nov 2023, reads "℗ 2023 Lyta / Azuri"; "Trubul," 30 Apr 2026, reads "℗ 2026 Lyta." · Deezer artist API, Lyta (artist 1101078), read 10 November 2026: 118 releases across two pages. Second platform independently corroborating release dates and record types. · Deezer album API, "Time": label "YBNL Nation," UPC 888915560686, release_date 2018-02-14. Independent corroboration of the YBNL-era credit. · Deezer album API, "Monalisa": label "Doro Musik Gang," UPC 194525767774, release_date 2019-07-12. Independent corroboration of the Doro Musik Gang-era credit. · Deezer album API, "Hold Me Down (Omo Gidi)": label "Marlian Music," UPC 195497006069, release_date 2020-08-14. Independent corroboration of the Marlian Music-era credit. · Deezer album API, "High Vibration": label "Marlian Music," UPC 196292888737, release_date 2021-11-26. Second independent corroboration of the Marlian Music-era credit, at the end of that period. · Deezer album API, "Stranger" EP: label "Dvpper Digital," UPC 766214738770, release_date 2023-02-10. Reads only the distributor's name, not "Rafat Music" — the one clear Apple/Deezer divergence in this catalogue. · Deezer album API, "Trubul": label "Lyta," UPC 825324673712, release_date 2026-04-30. Independent corroboration that the current credit names Lyta alone. · MusicBrainz rights registry, read 10 November 2026: confirms artist MBID 13332404-48bd-4175-a956-9a54f77ee10a, legal name Opeyemi Babatunde Rahim, country Nigeria. MusicBrainz's own release data for Lyta is too sparse to corroborate individual label credits, so it is used here for identity only. · Trade press, 3 June 2019, read 10 November 2026: Lyta quoted directly, "I don't have any deal with YBNL or Olamide," and "Olamide saw me on the street and helped me, I don't have any written contract with him." · Trade press, 14 June 2019, read 10 November 2026: reports Olamide stating Lyta "has no contract signed" and that Fireboy DML is the only YBNL act with "a valid and legal contract." · Trade press, 11 August 2020, read 10 November 2026: reports Naira Marley's Instagram post "Welcome to MarlianMusic @official_lyta" and Lyta's own post, "I'm so excited to be joining my new family Marlian Music," thanking "my President @nairamarley for giving me this amazing opportunity." · Trade press, 5 December 2023, read 10 November 2026: quotes Lyta on the Ginger Yourself podcast, "I am not signed with Marlian Records. Naira Marley is just showing me love," and separately, on wanting to return to YBNL, "I want to be back with YBNL. What I did back then wasn't intentional." · UK Companies House, searched 10 November 2026 via the advanced-search endpoint: no companies match "Doro Musik Gang." · UK Companies House, searched 10 November 2026: no companies match "Rafat Music." · UK Companies House, searched 10 November 2026: no companies match "Azuri Music."
Read this before citing: NO TRANSACTION IS RECORDED HERE. This record documents six changes in the phonogram owner named on Lyta's catalogue since 2018, established from delivered metadata, not a sale, assignment or signing confirmed by any party for most of them.
NO CONSIDERATION IS DISCLOSED FOR ANY PERIOD. No advance, royalty rate, equity stake, fee or cash figure appears in any source for any of the six credit-line periods. "Not disclosed" is the complete answer throughout.
TWO OF THE NAMED LABELS HAVE BEEN PUBLICLY DISCLAIMED BY THE ARTIST HIMSELF, IN DIFFERENT WAYS. For YBNL Nation: Lyta told NigerianEye on 3 June 2019, days after his exit became public, "I don't have any deal with YBNL or Olamide… I don't have any written contract with him." Olamide said separately, reported by National Daily on 14 June 2019, that Lyta "has no contract signed" and that Fireboy DML is the only YBNL act with "a valid and legal contract." Both statements came after Apple's own ℗ line had already carried "YBNL NATION" as phonogram owner on two 2018 releases. Some outlets report this specifically as "no WRITTEN contract," a narrower claim than "no deal at all"; this record carries both versions of the quote rather than flattening them into one.
For Marlian Music, the sequence runs the opposite direction. On 11 August 2020, Naira Marley and Lyta mutually and publicly announced the signing: Marley posted "Welcome to MarlianMusic," Lyta responded "I'm so excited to be joining my new family Marlian Music," per BellaNaija's report the same day. Apple's ℗ line then carried "Marlian Music" as phonogram owner for the next 15 months, August 2020 to November 2021. On 5 December 2023, in an interview on the Ginger Yourself podcast reported by TheWill News, Lyta denied the relationship had ever been a signing: "I am not signed with Marlian Records. Naira Marley is just showing me love." By that date his catalogue had already moved on to Rafat Music for over a year. No source reconciles the 2020 announcement with the 2023 denial.
THREE OF THE NAMED COMPANIES COULD NOT BE IDENTIFIED IN ANY CORPORATE REGISTER. UK Companies House searches for "Doro Musik Gang," "Rafat Music" and "Azuri Music," run by this desk on 10 November 2026 using the site's advanced-search endpoint (the plain search endpoint is client-side rendered and returns false negatives), return no matching companies. 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 for all three. This record makes no claim about whether any of the three is a registered company, an unregistered trading name, or a personal imprint, and does not assert that Lyta holds or does not hold equity in any of them.
"RAFAT" AND "AZURI" MAY OR MAY NOT BE LYTA'S OWN IMPRINTS UNDER DIFFERENT NAMES. Several releases in both periods carry a doubled credit ("Lyta / Azuri," "Rafat Music / Dvpper Music") pairing the artist's own name with the label name, and the current (2026) credit line drops the label name entirely and reads "Lyta" alone. This record does not assert that Rafat Music or Azuri was ever anything other than Lyta's own personal imprint; it also does not assert that it was. No announcement of either name, or of the move away from either, was found.
"DVPPER"/"DAPPER" NAMING IS INCONSISTENT ACROSS THE CATALOGUE AND ACROSS THIS DESK'S OWN COMPANY DIRECTORY. The ℗ line and Deezer's label field use "Dvpper," "Dvpper Music" and "Dvpper Digital" interchangeably across Lyta's releases, naming it only as distributor, never as phonogram owner. This desk's own directory separately carries both "Dvpper"/"Dvpper Digital" and "Dapper Music"/"Dapper Group" as existing company profiles; this record does not assert any relationship between the "V" and "P" spellings and treats them as distinct pending further research.
WHY THIS RECORD USES CATALOGUE METADATA RATHER THAN A FILING OR A CONTRACT. None of the six named labels is a US or UK filer, and only Marlian Music and YBNL Nation have a confirmed company registration this desk could find, so no regulatory document exists to read for the others. Apple Music's and Deezer's APIs, and the dated trade-press interviews cited above, are used in their place.
