Swangz Avenue is looking to increase the talent managed under the record label by the end of 2023.
Among Uganda’s leading audio-visual production houses, Swangz has in the last two years embarked on a rather ambitious expansion strategy spreading its wings into influencer management, a creatives’ academy and film among others. Going by the information that Plugged is privy to, the strategy will see the record label equally grow its roster.
The latest signing under the label is Zagazillions (formerly Young Zee) who was announced in June this year, a decade after he left Swangz. Young Zee, a 13-year-old rapper had initially joined Swangz in 2013 before he disappeared from the scene.
Currently, Swangz manages Winnie Nwagi, Azawi, Vinka, Zafaran, Elijah Kitaka and Double Black (a band).
This year alone, the Industrial Area-based label has made two signings – Kitaka and Zagazillions.
Julius Kyazze, the chief executive of the label told Plugged that there has been a plan to expand the roster and that resources have already been mobilized to actualize this.
“We’ve mobilized enough resources to be able to expand the number of artistes we work with,” Kyazze told Plugged on Friday.
On what informs this ambitious expansion, he says Swangz is always looking for opportunities to grow whatever they are doing.
“And we think we are in the position to bite a bit more right now when it comes to our label side. We have brought in extra talent, from the management side, that will be able to handle these artistes. We usually never want to take on artistes if we are not able to service their needs or growth journey,” he added.
We understand the label has recently been recruiting to beef up its comms, marketing, creative and digital teams.
The expansion follows successes registered by Azawi who put out a successful album (African Music) in 2021 and enjoyed a highly commercial (bookings) year in 2022, and then Winnie Nwagi who held the biggest concert of 2022.
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Artistes like Azawi and Vinka have also managed to land endorsement deals with key brands, which is key not only for their brand positioning but also financial sustenance of the label.
Kyazze who runs point on the business and strategic aspects of the company has previously revealed that “passion for growth” and “doing big things” is what gets he and his co-founder, Benon Mugumbya excited.
“We will say let’s get Shs 200m and bank it on an artiste. We gamble on it. And that’s what keeps us going,” Kyazze said in a 2022 interview.
Some might argue that indeed some of their gambles have been misses. Zafaran for example who was launched in March of last year still lurks in the background. Other critics saw Kitaka’s announcement as premature as it would further overshadow Zafaran. And maybe it did, especially since the former already has an EP out in four months.
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But Swangz’s isn’t one that follows popular demands. At the heart of the label’s ethos is the ballsy belief that the market doesn’t know what it wants. And by implication, Swangz must then determine what’s best for the audience.
Kyazze has previously stated that if the market was as powerful as some people argue, Vinka, for example, wouldn’t have come the far she has. Her initial days attracted a lot of negative sentiments that were largely sexist. Many dismissed her from the onset yet she has thrived, with a couple of hits to her name.
“We have a plan and we follow it. We don’t change our strategy because someone in the paper said this or a fan attacked an artiste. If this was what we were doing, we would have killed Vinka two months into her launch,” Kyazze said in 2019.
Until March, Swangz has had to contend with the stereotypes relating to being an all-female label. It remains to be seen how much more gender mix the next talent to be onboarded will be achieved.
“We don’t take on artistes who already have music. We take people who have talent. If you have something different to bring to the marketplace, then you are our person. Because anyone can sing well. But then you don’t want to have 30 artistes singing the same thing,” Kyazze says of the criteria for signing artistes.
“Nobody knew about Azawi or Irene Ntale before we signed them.”
The business of talent management in Uganda hasn’t developed at the same pace as music has. On one part, due to the lack of professional managers, the lack of investors and an attitude that views record labels as shady or exploitative.
Recently, Cindy castigated record labels for sidelining exceptional talent and instead choosing to sign “dolls” who can play by the selfish conditions set by these labels.
“As long as you can accept the slavery contract, they (record labels) will go with you. They sign dolls that are willing to play by the rules. There is so much good talent. People that remind you of Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj. But nobody is gonna sign that chic. But a chic with a questionable voice is the one signed to a label… because she agreed to play along,” she said in a recent interview.
She also accuses labels of dictating what kind of lifestyle or personality the artistes live.
Swangz has had a fair share of rough patches in its 15-year-long journey of talent management. It has fallen out with some of its talent among them Irene Ntale and Joel Kisakye. The other problem the label has constantly had to maneuver being controversies surrounding Nwagi’s character.
Kisakye (winner of 2015 Coca Cola Rated Next) quit Swangz after accusing the label of failure to honor its obligations. He says his 2015 win was conditioned on working with Swangz Avenue. On top of the Shs 50m cash prize, he won a recording deal (an entire album) with Swangz.
He has previously said that six months into the deal, he wasn’t seeing progress as the label was dragging their feet. Never mind that half of the money he had won had gone to Swangz to facilitate video production and promotion of his brand.
At the start of 2017, Irene Ntale who had quickly risen to national fame owing to hits like Sembera, Gyobera, Nkubukize and He Go Down, refused to renew her contract with Swangz after four years with the label.
Kyazze could not divulge the exact number of artistes that will join the label, arguing this is dependent on many variables.
“If we don’t find the right talent, we shall not sign. There is always a waiting list and all, but it comes down to many things. The timing, the positioning of the artiste and others,” he told Plugged.
“We have the bandwidth to take up more artistes, but we are not going to just take them up because we have the space. A lot of things have to fall in place. Usually, we always have artistes under development that you guys never hear about. Elijah was under development for one year before we unveiled him.”
He adds that while there are such people already in the pipeline, the timeline for launching them will depend on how fast they develop.
