Deal sheet
- Status
- Confirmed by two independent trade reports as to the 2018 signing date and the 2022 and 2023 label changes. Not confirmed by any source as to why an unreported company, Waka Music Limited, is the phonogram credit holder throughout the Universal Music Africa era, or why three 2026 singles drop any company credit entirely. Waka Music Limited's own identity remains unresolved, as it already was in this desk's separate investigation into Ghanaian catalogue sales (afw_company 3131).
- Type
- Distribution,Licensing
- Parties
- Universal Music Africa, Waka Music Limited, Big Dreams Entertainment, Yema Production, Sony Music Entertainment France
- Amount
- Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- This record tracks who is named as the phonogram (P) rights holder on Locko's own recordings across four periods, not a single transaction. PHASE ONE, 2014 to mid-2018: Big Dreams Entertainment, an independent Cameroonian label founded by Gervais Ngongang, produced and released Locko as an artist it managed, including his debut studio album The Bridge. PHASE TWO: Music In Africa and CRTV both reported that Locko signed with Universal Music Africa on 29 June 2018, terms not disclosed. Universal Music Africa DISTRIBUTES. But the phonogram credit printed on every Locko-led release from that era, read directly on Apple Music and Deezer, is not 'Universal Music Africa' and not 'Big Dreams Entertainment.' It reads 'WAKA Music Limited, distributed by Universal Music Africa' on ten releases dated between 2018 and 2021, including The Bridge itself and Skyzo, an EP whose tracklist includes songs titled Margo and Ndutu, the same titles trade press gives for Locko's first two singles under Big Dreams Entertainment in January 2015. Neither Ngongang's own account of Big Dreams nor either 2018 signing report ever mentions a company called Waka Music Limited. PHASE THREE, 2022: after Universal Music Africa's arrangement with Locko ended in March 2022 per Music In Africa, his own label Yema Production, which he created in 2017, is the sole credit on three 2022 releases. Locko OWNS through Yema Production here, with no distributor named in the credit. PHASE FOUR, March 2023 to March 2025: following Locko's 27 February 2023 announcement of a deal with Sony Music Africa and Columbia Records France, the credit becomes 'Yema Production under exclusive license to Sony Music Entertainment Africa FR' (Apple Music's wording) across six releases including the album Purple Love. Yema Production OWNS and LICENSES; Sony Music Entertainment France, through its Sony Music Afrique Francophone imprint, DISTRIBUTES and administers under that license. It does not own the masters. PHASE FIVE, mid-2026: three singles, Desole (19 June), Mal a la tete (10 July) and Ndene (31 July), carry only 'Locko' as the credited rights holder, with no company named at all. No source checked explains this change, and it is not addressed by any Sony, Yema Production or Universal Music Africa statement found.
- Territory
- Locko is Cameroonian and based in Cameroon. Universal Music Africa is the Abidjan-based, Ivory Coast-headquartered pan-African division of Universal Music Group that distributed his catalogue 2018-2021. Waka Music Limited's own jurisdiction is unconfirmed; this desk's only matching corporate registration for that name is a private company incorporated in Hong Kong on 8 March 2023 (see afw_company 3131), which cannot itself have held a 2018 phonogram credit. Sony Music Entertainment France operates the Sony Music Afrique Francophone (Sony Music Africa FR) imprint under which Locko's masters were licensed 2023-2025.
- Announced
- 2018-06-29
- Primary document
- Trade press
- Sources
- Music In Africa report of Locko's signing with Universal Music Africa, 29 June 2018, read directly · Cameroon Radio Television, 29 June 2018 report of the signing at Canal Olympia Douala, terms not disclosed, names Big Dreams Entertainment and The Bridge (February 2018) as the prior label and album. Direct fetch returned HTTP 404 at the time of writing; content confirmed via a cached search-result excerpt of the same article. · Music In Africa, 27 February 2023 announcement of Locko's signing with Sony Music Africa and Columbia Records France, read directly: confirms Universal Music Africa arrangement ended March 2022 and describes the new deal as publishing and distribution. · Lebledparle broadcast interview with Big Dreams Entertainment founder Gervais Ngongang, read directly: founded the label December 2014, Locko's career under it began 1 January 2015. · African Music Library label profile for Yema Prod, read directly: "Yema Prod is a Cameroonian music label Created in 2017 by LOCKO," artists listed as Locko, One_official237 and Oji Kasanovaofficiel. · Sony Music France's own site, read directly: presents Sony Music Afrique Francophone (Sony Music Africa FR) as an imprint under Sony Music Entertainment France, features Locko as a signed artist. · Apple Music catalogue API, Locko artist ID 216819124, fetched and parsed directly: full phonogram-credit history used throughout this record, 2018 through 2026. · Locko's Apple Music artist page, corresponding to the ID above. · Deezer catalogue API, Locko artist ID 200195, fetched and parsed directly: independent cross-check of the same release list and dates. · Deezer album record for The Bridge, fetched directly: release date 2018-02-16, label field "WAKA Music Limited." · Deezer album record for Skyzo, fetched directly: release date 2018-08-03, label field "WAKA Music Limited," tracklist includes "Margo" and "Ndutu." · Deezer album record for Cloud Nine, fetched directly: label field "WAKA Music Limited." · Deezer album record for Era, fetched directly: label field "WAKA Music Limited." · Deezer album record for Ole Ole, fetched directly: label field "YEMA PROD." · Deezer album record for Purple Love, fetched directly: label field "Sony Music Entertainment." · Deezer track/album record for Desole (2026), fetched directly: label field "Locko," no company named. · Deezer album record for Mal a la tete (2026), fetched directly: label field "Locko." · Deezer album record for Ndene (2026), fetched directly: label field "Locko." · Deezer track record for "Margo" as it appears on the 2018 Skyzo release, fetched directly: ISRC CIUM71800020.
Read this before citing: ESTABLISHED, FROM TWO INDEPENDENT TRADE REPORTS. Music In Africa and CRTV both report, independently and read directly by this desk, that Locko signed with Universal Music Africa on Friday 29 June 2018 at Canal Olympia in Douala, becoming the second Cameroonian artist to join UMA after rapper Tenor in November 2017. Neither outlet disclosed financial terms. Both also state that Locko's prior label was Big Dreams Entertainment, which produced his debut album The Bridge, released in February 2018, four months before the Universal signing. Music In Africa separately reports that the Universal Music Africa arrangement ended in March 2022, and that Locko announced a new deal with Sony Music Africa and Columbia Records France on 27 February 2023, described as covering publishing and distribution, with Sony Music Africa handling continental development and Columbia France handling his profile outside Africa.
ESTABLISHED, FROM THE FOUNDER'S OWN ACCOUNT. Gervais Ngongang, in a broadcast interview read directly, states he founded Big Dreams Entertainment in December 2014 and that Locko's career under the label effectively began 1 January 2015. He does not mention Waka Music Limited, Universal Music Africa or any transfer of his recordings to a third party at any point in that interview.
ESTABLISHED, FROM THE PHONOGRAM CREDITS THEMSELVES, READ ON TWO INDEPENDENT CATALOGUES. This desk read Locko's full discography directly from both the Apple Music catalogue API and the Deezer catalogue API. The two sources agree, release by release, on every date and every credit reported here. Ten Locko-led releases dated 3 August 2018 to 17 December 2021, including the albums The Bridge, Skyzo, Cloud Nine and Era, carry the copyright line "WAKA Music Limited, distributed by Universal Music Africa" (Apple Music) or list "WAKA Music Limited" as the Deezer label field. Three 2022 releases (Energy, Ole Ole, Les Bruits) carry "YEMA PROD" alone. Six releases from 3 March 2023 to 14 March 2025, including the album Purple Love, carry "Yema Production Under Exclusive License to Sony Music Entertainment Africa FR" on Apple Music, and "Sony Music Entertainment" as the Deezer label field. Three 2026 singles (Desole, 19 June; Mal a la tete, 10 July; Ndene, 31 July) carry only "Locko" as the credited rights holder on both platforms, with no company named.
A DATING DISCREPANCY THIS DESK COULD NOT RESOLVE. Apple Music and Deezer both date The Bridge to 16 February 2018 and Skyzo to 3 August 2018, and both already carry the Waka Music Limited/Universal Music Africa credit on The Bridge. But The Bridge is independently reported by Music In Africa and CRTV as a Big Dreams Entertainment production, released four months before Locko signed with Universal Music Africa on 29 June 2018. This desk cannot establish whether the catalogue date reflects the true original release, preserved through a later reissue under new distribution with the credit line updated retroactively, or some other metadata practice at either platform. What is established is that, as read today, an album two independent trade sources attribute to Big Dreams Entertainment, released before Universal Music Africa signed the artist at all, is credited on both major catalogues to a company neither trade source, nor the Big Dreams founder himself, ever mentions.
A SECOND, INDEPENDENT INSTANCE OF THE SAME PATTERN. Skyzo's ten-track listing includes songs titled "Margo" and "Ndutu." Gervais Ngongang's own account, and Cameroonian coverage of Big Dreams Entertainment's early period, name "Margo" and "Ndutu" as Locko's first two singles, released from January 2015. This desk could not establish whether the versions on the 2018 Skyzo release are the identical 2015 recordings, re-recordings, or new versions carrying the same titles. No Big Dreams Entertainment catalogue register exists to check master identity, and the ISRC logged against "Margo" on Deezer, CIUM71800020, carries a 2018 year code, not a 2015 one, which is consistent with either a new registration of an old recording or a genuinely new recording, and this desk asserts neither.
NOT ESTABLISHED: WAKA MUSIC LIMITED'S IDENTITY. This desk has already investigated Waka Music Limited once, in connection with reported catalogue purchases from at least fourteen Ghanaian artists (afw_company 3131). That investigation found only one matching corporate registration anywhere, a private company incorporated in Hong Kong on 8 March 2023, and could not confirm it was the same entity described in Ghanaian trade press, whose own reporting already put a Waka Music Limited phonogram credit on Shatta Wale releases from 2018. This record adds a second, geographically distant data point: the same name, credited the same way, on a Cameroonian artist's catalogue distributed through Universal Music Africa's Abidjan pipeline, starting the same year, 2018, five years before the only company of that name this desk can find was incorporated. Two unrelated artists on two different label pipelines carrying an identical, unexplained 2018 credit under the same company name makes coincidence less likely and a pre-2023 corporate history more likely, but this desk still cannot name what that history was, in what jurisdiction, or under whose ownership.
NOT ESTABLISHED: WHY THE 2026 CREDITS NAME NO COMPANY AT ALL. Three 2026 singles carry only "Locko" as rights holder. No press release, social media statement or label announcement found by this desk addresses this change. It is not established whether the Sony Music Africa/Columbia France arrangement announced in February 2023 is still active, has lapsed, or has been renegotiated on terms that do not appear in the phonogram credit. Soul Brova's single "Developper," released 24 July 2026 on the new Cameroonian label MEWAA Music and featuring Locko as a guest, does not resolve this: it is a guest feature on another artist's release, not a Locko-led recording, and MEWAA Music does not appear on any Locko-led release checked.
NOT ESTABLISHED: ANY CONSIDERATION, AT ANY STAGE. No signing bonus, advance, royalty rate, revenue share or licence fee has been disclosed for the Big Dreams Entertainment period, the Universal Music Africa signing, the Yema Production/Sony licence, or any change involving Waka Music Limited. "Not disclosed" is the complete answer.
NOT A CLAIM THAT ANY PARTY ACTED IMPROPERLY. This record does not assert that Universal Music Africa, Waka Music Limited, Sony Music Entertainment France, Big Dreams Entertainment or Locko himself concealed anything, misled anyone, or breached any agreement. It asserts only what the phonogram credits say, what trade press reported, and where the two do not line up.
WHAT WAS CHECKED AND CAME BACK EMPTY. Cameroon has no public company registry search tool this desk could locate, so Big Dreams Entertainment's and Yema Production's legal status and incorporation could not be independently verified beyond their founders' own public statements. UK Companies House has no record under the name Waka Music Limited. No contract, for any phase of Locko's career, is public.
Universal Music Africa announced it had signed Cameroonian singer Locko on 29 June 2018. For the next three and a half years, almost none of the music he released carried Universal’s name as the rights holder. It carried the name of a company nobody covering the signing has ever mentioned.
What changed hands, on paper, looks simple. Locko left the independent Cameroonian label Big Dreams Entertainment, which had produced his 2018 debut album The Bridge, and signed a distribution deal with Universal Music Africa, the Abidjan-based regional arm of Universal Music Group. He was only the second Cameroonian artist to join UMA, after rapper Tenor in 2017. Financial terms were never disclosed, then or since.
What the phonogram credits actually say is less simple. Read directly from both the Apple Music and Deezer catalogue APIs, ten Locko-led releases dated between 2018 and 2021, including The Bridge, the EP Skyzo, and the albums Cloud Nine and Era, carry the line “WAKA Music Limited, distributed by Universal Music Africa.” Universal Music Africa is named as the distributor. A company called Waka Music Limited is named as the rights holder. Neither the Music In Africa report of the signing, nor CRTV’s contemporaneous coverage, nor an interview with Big Dreams Entertainment’s own founder, Gervais Ngongang, mentions that name at all.
A four-month gap that neither platform explains
The dating makes this stranger. Apple Music and Deezer both log The Bridge’s release date as 16 February 2018, already carrying the Waka Music Limited credit. But Music In Africa and CRTV both independently report that The Bridge was a Big Dreams Entertainment production, released four months before Locko signed with Universal Music Africa at all, in June 2018. An album made by one label, before a deal with a completely different distributor existed, is nonetheless catalogued today under a rights holder connected to that later distributor.
This desk cannot say why. It could be that streaming platforms preserve an album’s original release date even after a later reissue updates the distribution and copyright metadata attached to it, which would mean The Bridge was re-processed through Universal’s pipeline sometime after June 2018 without the displayed date changing. It could be something else. What is established is only what both catalogues show today, and that it does not match either trade account of who made the record or when Universal Music Africa entered the picture.
A second data point points the same way. Skyzo, catalogued as an August 2018 EP, includes two tracks called “Margo” and “Ndutu.” Ngongang’s own account of Big Dreams Entertainment’s early days names “Margo” and “Ndutu” as Locko’s first two singles, released from January 2015, years before Universal Music Africa or Waka Music Limited enter the story at all. Whether the 2018 versions are the same recordings or new ones, this desk could not establish. The Deezer entry for “Margo” carries the ISRC code CIUM71800020, whose year code reads 2018, not 2015, which is consistent with either explanation and proves neither.
A name this desk has already tried, and failed, to identify
Waka Music Limited is not new to this title. It surfaced here once before, in reporting on catalogue deals with more than a dozen Ghanaian artists, including Sarkodie, Shatta Wale, Kuami Eugene and Fameye, where it was reported to pay upfront sums for the rights to older, already-released songs. That investigation found exactly one matching corporate registration anywhere: a private company of the same name incorporated in Hong Kong on 8 March 2023. It could not confirm this Hong Kong entity was the same company described in Ghanaian press, and it could not establish Waka Music Limited’s true jurisdiction, ownership, or history before that date. Ghanaian trade press itself dated a Waka Music Limited credit on Shatta Wale’s catalogue to 2018.
Locko’s catalogue adds a second, unconnected artist, on a different label pipeline, in a different country, carrying the identical name from the same year, 2018, five years before the only registration this desk can find. Two artists with no reported connection to each other, distributed through different systems, both carrying a Waka Music Limited credit that predates the company’s only known incorporation by half a decade, is harder to write off as coincidence than either case was on its own. It does not, on its own, tell us what that earlier corporate history was, or who controlled it.
Four changes of hands, one open question at the end
Universal Music Africa’s arrangement with Locko ended in March 2022, per Music In Africa. Three releases that year, including the singles Energy and Ole Ole, carry only “YEMA PROD” as rights holder: Locko’s own label, which he created in 2017, with no distributor named in the credit at all. On 27 February 2023 Locko announced a new deal with Sony Music Africa and Columbia Records France, described as covering both publishing and distribution. From that point, six releases including the 2025 album Purple Love carry “Yema Production under exclusive license to Sony Music Entertainment Africa FR.” That is Sony Music Entertainment France’s Sony Music Afrique Francophone imprint, which lists Locko among its featured artists on its own site. Locko owns his masters through Yema Production and licenses them; Sony distributes and administers under that license. It does not own them.
Then, in mid-2026, the credit changes again, and this time nobody has explained it. Three singles released between June and July 2026, Desole, Mal a la tete and Ndene, carry no company at all. Just “Locko.” No statement from Sony, from Yema Production, or from Locko himself accounts for the shift. A feature he contributed to a separate artist’s single that same period, “Developper” by Soul Brova on the new label MEWAA Music, does not resolve it either: it is someone else’s release, and MEWAA Music’s name appears nowhere on Locko’s own catalogue.
What this means for artists
If you distribute through a major’s regional arm, check what name is actually printed on your phonogram credit, not just the name in the press release announcing your deal. Locko’s own signing announcement, in both Cameroonian outlets that covered it, named Universal Music Africa as the label he was joining. For more than three years, that is not the name that appeared as rights holder on his own recordings. A distributor and a rights holder are not always the same company, and the gap between them will not show up anywhere except in the copyright line itself.
Second, if a company approaches you to buy or administer your catalogue, and that company’s name has surfaced before in a country you have no connection to, ask when that company was actually formed, and in what jurisdiction. This desk has now found the name Waka Music Limited on catalogue credits in Ghana and Cameroon, on releases years before the only registered company of that name existed. An artist looking to verify a counterparty cannot rely on the fact that a name looks established elsewhere.
Third, when a deal ends quietly, as Locko’s Universal Music Africa arrangement did in 2022 and as whatever governed his 2023 Sony arrangement may or may not have done by 2026, the clearest signal is often not an announcement. It is a change in the copyright line on the next release. Reading it costs nothing and answers a question press releases are not designed to answer.
How this was verified
Every date and credit in this record comes from either a document this desk fetched and read directly, primary reporting from Music In Africa and CRTV on the signings themselves, an interview with Big Dreams Entertainment’s own founder, and the phonogram credits logged by Apple Music and Deezer, checked against each other independently rather than taken from either alone. Where the two trade accounts and the two catalogues disagreed, or where a fact could not be checked against any document at all, this record says so rather than filling the gap.
