Deal sheet
- Status
- Active
- Type
- Distribution
- Parties
- Ziiki Media
- Amount
- Not disclosed Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- No masters, publishing or catalogue transfer is described in any source checked; the reporting frames this as a label/distribution signing, not a rights sale. Apple Music phonographic (P) credits, checked directly in page markup rather than summarised from a database, show Ziiki Media as sole rightsholder of record on Nakai's 14 March 2025 album Braggacy and on her 28 November 2025 single REALLY featuring Nasty C, both reading '(P) 2025 Ziiki Media'. That is consistent with a distribution or label-services arrangement in which Ziiki controls the phonographic copyright line on new releases; no source states whether this is an outright licence, a distribution deal with copyright assigned to Ziiki for the term, or something else, and none of the parties has published contract terms.
- Territory
- Ziiki Media is headquartered in Sandton, South Africa, and is described in press coverage as a Pan-African label and distributor with additional operations in India. Nakai is South African. No source specifies a bounded rights territory distinct from Ziiki's general operating footprint.
- Announced
- 2023-11-23
- Primary document
- Trade press
- Sources
- City Life Arts trade report, 24 November 2023, on the signing event held at La Parada, Parkmore, Sandton on 23 November 2023, carrying on-the-record quotes from both Nadia Nakai and Ria, described in the piece as Executive Director at Ziiki Media. · Ziiki Media artist roster page for Nadia Nakai, checked directly, confirms her as a current signed artist.
Read this before citing: This record covers the November 2023 Ziiki Media signing specifically; it does not establish deal terms, term length, advance, royalty split or catalogue ownership, none of which any source discloses. The company's own directory profile on this site names Arun Nagar as founder and head of Ziiki Media; the signing report and a subsequent dispute report both identify 'Ria' (reported elsewhere as Ria Nagar) as Executive Director, and outlets describe the company inconsistently as a 'Pan-African label' and as a 'music and entertainment distribution company' — that owns-versus-distributes language is not resolved here and is reported as found. Nakai's full release history was checked directly in Apple Music page markup, not taken from a secondary database: releases from 2016 through February 2020 (Bragga EP, Nadia Naked, 40 Bars, Nadia Naked II) carry the phonographic credit 'Family Tree, under exclusive license to Universal Music (Pty) Ltd (ZA)'. A biographical summary of Nakai states she signed to Def Jam Africa in May 2020, the month Universal Music Group launched that imprint in South Africa; no release in her Apple Music catalogue, checked track by track, ever carries a Def Jam Africa or Universal Music Africa phonographic credit, so this record cannot verify that signing produced any credited release. Wikipedia further states she left Family Tree Records in June 2021 to pursue her own label. Her 22 July 2022 single 'Not The Same' (feat. Lucasraps) carries the credit 'Nadia Nakai under exclusive license to Warner Music Africa', checked in page markup at the release's own Apple Music page; no announcement of a Warner Music Africa deal was found in any source checked, so this is reported as an undisclosed one-single licence, not as a label signing. Releases dated September 2023 through October 2024 (Back In, Runnin' Back, Never Leave, Umfazi, 2 Pack) are self-credited to Nadia Nakai alone, before the Ziiki credit begins appearing on 2025 releases, roughly sixteen months after the announced signing date. On 26 August 2025, SA Hip Hop Mag reported that Nakai posted Instagram Stories alleging the company had failed to deliver, describing her first contract as 'wild' and saying she moved Braggacy's release date by a month 'for them to do absolutely nothing'; that outlet said Ziiki had not responded by publication. News24 subsequently reported Ziiki Media's response on 28 August 2025 under a headline referencing a promise of 'mutual satisfaction'; that page returns an access-denied response to this site's verification check and is cited here only as a secondary reference, not as the primary source of this record. Despite the public dispute, the Ziiki Media phonographic credit continued on Nakai's 28 November 2025 single with Nasty C, checked directly in that release's own page markup.
Nadia Nakai signed with Ziiki Media at an event in Sandton on 23 November 2023. Twenty-one months later she used her own Instagram Stories to say the company “can’t even do the bare minimum.” Three months after that, her single with Nasty C still carried Ziiki’s copyright line. This record traces what her release credits actually say, label by label, against what was announced.
