Deal sheet
- Status
- Confirmed
- Type
- Distribution
- Parties
- DM Records Limited, ONErpm, EMPIRE
- Amount
- Not disclosed Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- Distribution of recorded masters only. Not ownership, not publishing, not a catalogue sale. DM Records Limited is the consistent label-of-record on Timaya's own-name catalogue across the full 2007 to 2026 iTunes Lookup API read (129 releases, Apple artist ID 282132704). Within that constant, the named international distributor appearing alongside DM Records in the phonogram credit line has changed three times since November 2020, with no announcement located from DM Records, Timaya, ONErpm or EMPIRE for any of the changes.
WHAT IS ESTABLISHED: no distributor is named in the phonogram credit on any DM Records release read before "Gra Gra" (4 November 2020), which reads "℗ 2020 DM Records Limited / ONErpm". ONErpm continues to appear through "No Pressure" (11 March 2022). The next own-name release, "Charger" (16 March 2022), reverts to "DM Records Limited" alone. "Get My Money Right" (30 June 2022) introduces "DM Records / EMPIRE" and that pairing holds through "ODESHI" (12 February 2025). "BIG MAN TING" (5 December 2025) drops the distributor name again, reading "DM Records" alone. The most recent release read, "Kontrol" (10 July 2026), reads "DM Records Limited / ONErpm", restoring the distributor named at the start of this record. Every credit was read on both the Nigerian and United States Apple storefronts and was identical on both.
WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED: the terms of any of the three arrangements, including advance, fee, royalty split, exclusivity or contract length, appear in no source located. No agreement date is known for any transition; the dates recorded here are release dates of the first or last record carrying each credit, not dates on which any contract was signed, amended or ended. A gap of roughly three months separates the last ONErpm-credited release in the first era and the first EMPIRE-credited release, and a gap of roughly five months separates the last EMPIRE-credited release and the un-distributed "BIG MAN TING", during which no source states what distribution arrangement, if any, was in place. Ownership of the DM Records catalogue is not addressed by any source reviewed: a distribution credit records who moves the recordings to stores, not who owns the underlying masters, which on the available evidence remain credited to DM Records Limited throughout.
ONERPM PUBLICLY NAMED TIMAYA BEFORE THE FIRST DOCUMENTED SWITCH AWAY FROM IT. ONErpm's own press release announcing its Lagos office, dated 25 March 2021, names Timaya on its African artist roster alongside Flavour, Laycon, Bella Shmurda, Reminisce, Ycee and others, roughly four and a half months after "Gra Gra" first carried the ONErpm credit. That public claim of the relationship was never followed by any public statement marking its end when the credit changed to EMPIRE fifteen months later, and EMPIRE never issued a comparable roster announcement naming Timaya at any point in its own two-and-a-half-year run on the catalogue. Neither company has said anything public about ONErpm's return in 2026.
EXCLUSIONS. Three releases carrying Timaya as a featured artist rather than a DM Records release are excluded from this trail: "Only God" (Victor AD, 8 May 2026, credited "REDEYE & UFUAS NATION / ONErpm"), "PATEK" and "Patek (Sped Up)" (DJ Obi, 2025, credited "OBI SOUND STUDIOS"), and "Tip Pon Yuh Toe" (16 February 2024, credited "TeamFoxx"). None of these carry a DM Records credit and none are treated as part of DM Records' distribution history.
- Territory
- Not stated by any party as a defined territory. The phonogram credit carries no territorial qualifier at any point in the catalogue (unlike, for example, credits that open with a country name). The same credit strings were returned identically from both the Nigerian and United States iTunes Lookup API storefronts for the full 129-release catalogue, and the releases are on sale on both storefronts throughout. That is consistent with worldwide distribution under each named distributor in turn, but no source states a territory, and this record does not assert one. ONErpm's own description of its Lagos operation, in the March 2021 press release cited below, describes an African roster serviced from a Lagos office as part of a global company, which is compatible with worldwide distribution but does not itself define the territory of any agreement with DM Records.
- Announced
- 2020-11-04
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- Apple catalogue lookup for Timaya (Apple artist ID 282132704), Nigerian storefront, read 17 September 2026, returning 129 rows covering the catalogue from 7 June 2007 to 10 July 2026, each carrying the phonogram credit line, collection name and release date, and showing the distributor credit move from no named distributor, to ONErpm (4 November 2020), to no named distributor, to EMPIRE (30 June 2022), to no named distributor (5 December 2025), to ONErpm again (10 July 2026). Identical results returned from the United States storefront. · Apple catalogue lookup for Timaya, United States storefront, read 17 September 2026, returning the same 129 rows and identical phonogram credits as the Nigerian storefront query used as the primary source. · Deezer artist album index for Timaya, read 17 September 2026, supplying the album IDs used for every Deezer label reading in this record. · Deezer album endpoint for "No Pressure", read 17 September 2026, returning label "DM Records Limited" and release date 2022-03-11, the last release of the first ONErpm era on Apple's reading. · Deezer album endpoint for "Get My Money Right", read 17 September 2026, returning label "DM Records / EMPIRE" and release date 2022-06-29, the first EMPIRE-credited release. · Deezer album endpoint for "ODESHI", read 17 September 2026, returning label "DM Records / EMPIRE" and release date 2025-02-12, the last EMPIRE-credited release. · Deezer album endpoint for "BIG MAN TING", read 17 September 2026, returning label "DM Records" and release date 2025-12-05, the release on which the distributor name disappears again. · Deezer album endpoint for "Kontrol", read 17 September 2026, returning label "DM Records Limited" and release date 2026-07-10, corroborating DM Records as label of record on the release where Apple's phonogram line restores the ONErpm credit. · ONErpm's own press release announcing its Lagos office and African roster, dated 25 March 2021, fetched 17 September 2026, naming Timaya alongside Flavour, Laycon, Ada Ehi, Bella Shmurda, Reminisce, Ycee, Umu Obiligbo and Kcee, with country manager Osagie Osarenz and North America/Afro-Caribbean A&R director Martin Price quoted. · Pulse Nigeria coverage of ONErpm's Lagos launch, published 23 March 2021, carrying the same artist roster naming Timaya, corroborating the ONErpm press release independently. · Nigeria CAC aggregator listing for DM Records Limited, RC 1165903, registered 22 January 2014, fetched 17 September 2026, giving the registered address and director names used on this site's company record. Recorded as an aggregator, not the CAC portal itself, which has no public API. · MusicBrainz release search for Timaya, attempted 17 September 2026, returned no usable release or label data. Recorded as checked, not corroborating.
Read this before citing: NOTHING WAS ANNOUNCED. No press release, statement or social post from DM Records Limited, Timaya, ONErpm or EMPIRE marking any of the three distributor changes was located. The dates recorded in this record are release dates of records carrying each credit, not dates of any agreement, which are unknown in all three cases.
NO AMOUNT EXISTS ANYWHERE. No advance, fee, royalty rate, minimum guarantee or term length for any of the three arrangements appears in any source located. "Not disclosed" is the accurate entry for amount and currency, not a placeholder for a figure this desk failed to find.
DM RECORDS' COMPANY REGISTRATION COMES FROM AN AGGREGATOR, NOT THE REGISTER ITSELF. Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission has no public search API. The registration number (RC 1165903), incorporation date (22 January 2014), registered address and director names used on this site's DM Records Limited company record come from ng-check.com, a private aggregator of CAC filings, and were not independently confirmed against the CAC portal directly. Recorded as an aggregator source, not a primary filing, consistent with the site's sourcing hierarchy.
DEEZER'S LABEL FIELD DOES NOT MATCH APPLE'S PHONOGRAM LINE. Deezer's per-album `label` field names "DM Records Limited" alone across both ONErpm eras (2020-2022 and 2026) and names "DM Records / EMPIRE" during the EMPIRE era, meaning Deezer's registry independently corroborates the EMPIRE credit but is silent on ONErpm specifically in both of its appearances. This is recorded as a registry-formatting difference, not a contradiction: Apple's phonogram string is the fuller and more consistent record and is treated as the primary source for the distributor credit throughout.
MUSICBRAINZ RETURNED NOTHING USABLE. Queries against MusicBrainz's release search for Timaya returned no usable release or label data at the time this record was compiled; the web service reported itself as busy. This is consistent with this desk's general experience that MusicBrainz has weak coverage of ongoing Nigerian indie catalogue and is recorded as checked, not as a corroborating or contradicting source.
DATE DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN REGISTRIES. Apple dates "Get My Money Right" to 30 June 2022 and Deezer to 29 June 2022. Apple dates "Cold Outside" to 13 October 2021 and Deezer to 14 October 2021. Apple dates "GLADIATOR" to 15 August 2024 and Deezer to 14 August 2024. Deezer's own label field for the album "Gratitude" reads "Timaya" rather than any company name, an anomaly not treated as evidence of anything beyond inconsistent metadata entry on Deezer's part. None of these discrepancies are resolved; all are recorded.
EXCLUSIONS. "Only God" (Victor AD featuring Timaya, 8 May 2026), "PATEK" and "Patek (Sped Up)" (DJ Obi featuring Timaya, 2025) and "Tip Pon Yuh Toe" (2024) are excluded from this trail because Timaya appears on them as a featured artist on another party's release, not as the DM Records-credited principal artist. None carry a DM Records phonogram credit.
UK COMPANIES HOUSE WAS NOT CHECKED FOR DM RECORDS LIMITED. This record relies on Nigerian company data alone. No UK filing was sought or found for this entity, and none is claimed.
