Black Market Records
US-founded record label (Sacramento, 1989) whose African arm, based in Kenya since c.2018, signs Gengetone and Arbantone acts including Mbuzi Gang and Fathermoh.
- Based in
- Kenya
- Founded
- 1989
- Founder
- Cedric Singleton
- Website
- blackmarketrecords.com
Black Market Records is an American independent record label founded in Sacramento, California, in 1989 by Cedric Singleton, who remains its owner and CEO. Around 2018-2019 it opened an African arm, styled “Black Market Afrika,” with Kenya as its stated East African base. It became one of the more visible labels behind Kenya’s Gengetone and Arbantone scenes, signing acts including Mbuzi Gang, Fathermoh and producer Vic West, and it has also signed Ugandan artists such as Boondocks Gang.
The label is privately owned by Singleton rather than backed by a major. Its structure has drawn scrutiny: the California LLC has been listed as suspended by the state’s Secretary of State (FTB/SOS status) since March 2013, and Kenya’s Copyright Tribunal issued interim orders in May 2026 barring the label and Singleton from asserting ownership over catalogue by Fathermoh and Harry Craze pending a full hearing. A separate Ugandan High Court ruling in April 2025 also went against the label in a contract dispute. None of these are final determinations, but they bear directly on who controls the rights to the music the label has released.
For Kenya’s Arbantone and Gengetone artists, Black Market Records has functioned as a de facto recording, marketing and distribution partner in a market where few foreign labels sign local acts directly, which is part of why its contract terms and legal standing are now being tested in two countries’ courts.
