American record label Empire has announced its first-ever Africa compilation album ‘Where We Come From (Vol. 1)’, as a continuation of the explosion of African music within the U.S airwaves.
According to Businessday, the announcement was made together with the release of the one track from the project ‘Cough (Odo)’ by Nigerian singer Kizz Daniel.
Set to highlight the rising talent from their ever-growing roster on the continent, ‘Where We Come From (Vol. 1)’, is set to showcase the rising global talents from the label’s ever-growing roaster on the African continent and to showcase Africa’s ability to foster unity through music.
“Working on this album has been one of the highlights of my career,” Bnxn fka Buju, Afrobeats singer said, “I feel blessed to have been around so much talent, drive, and creativity all in the same room. This album is about showcasing the best that Africa has to offer, and we’ve done that.”
The compilation project is a body of work produced during the writing camp at the San Francisco headquarters of EMPIRE, which was held immediately after their debut performance of “The New Africa” on the second night of SXSW in March.
The audience witnessed performances by Bnxn fka Buju, Cheque, Fireboy DML, June Freedom, L.A.X., Wande Coal, and more EMPIRE-signed African music pioneers. The new project is expected to feature Fireboy DML, Olamide, Bnxn fka Buju, Navy Kenzo, Wande Coal, Tolani, Black Sherif, Leil, Kizz Daniel, L.A.X, and other artists.
“This album is a collective of multi-talented, independent artists, who we’ve partnered with to help create a legacy of cultural appreciation and collaboration, ” Ezegozie Eze, Jr., VP, of Strategy and Market Development – Africa & Diaspora said. “Building this platform is one way we plan to further highlight the soundscapes of Africa and the diversity of its artists. It’s a celebration of familiar sounds and emerging fusions, of familiar voices and rising stars. We’re extremely appreciative of the time and dedication it took everyone involved to put this together.”
EMPIRE Africa globalized EMPIRE’s existing success in America by further highlighting and developing the accomplishments of Nigerian artists like Fireboy DML, Bnxn fka Buju, Olamide, KiDi, Black Sherif, and Asake.
As one of the top labels in Nigeria by the music company with the collective most No. 1’songs on steaming platforms locally this year with its roster dominating the Top 35 songs on Apple Music’s ‘Nigeria Top Songs’ charts and held the #1 Top Single for over 25 weeks on TurnTable Charts, the equivalent of Billboard charts in Nigeria.
The division has seen much recent success with Asake’s ‘Mr. Money With The Vibe’ as it became the highest charting debut Nigerian album of all time on the Billboard 200 and the biggest Nigerian album in Apple Music history (globally), Fireboy DML became the first African artist to perform at the 2022 BET Awards, Kizz Daniel breaking records as the most streamed artist on Boomplay, KiDi going platinum in India for his hot single “Touch It” featuring multi-platinum recording artist Tyga, and Black Sheriff gaining 75+ million audio streams for “Kwaku the Traveller” in just one month.
“The artists from Africa really transcend where music is today,” Ghazi, Empire CEO and Founder said, “This is a legendary moment for Empire to be able to share incredible African music with the world, much of which we were fortunate enough to record at our studio here in San Francisco.”
