Next Monday, April 20 2026, a Federal High Court in Lagos returns to one of the most consequential music rights cases in African entertainment history. The criminal proceedings concern the alleged secret sale of the master recordings behind the albums that introduced Burna Boy to the world.
It will be the third time the court has convened on the matter. The accused, Priye Isokrari, founder of Aristokrat Records, has not appeared once.
The matter was first called in December 2025 and adjourned to February 10, 2026 — dates on which neither the defendant nor his legal representatives appeared. The court was told the defendant had not been served, or that the affidavit of service was filed late.
What is unfolding across two Nigerian courtrooms is no longer a local corporate dispute. It has become a live test of whether the legal infrastructure of Africa’s most valuable music market can hold its own against the weight of global entertainment money and whether Warner Music, one of the world’s most powerful music companies, will be compelled to answer for its role in it.
The Dispute, In Plain Terms
960 Music Group is suing to void the sale of Burna Boy’s early catalogue, alleging that Aristokrat Records founder Piriye Isokrari illegally sold the assets to Spaceship Music in mid-2024 without its consent or knowledge. 960 Music holds a 40% stake in Aristokrat Records, the label that signed Burna Boy in 2011.
The catalogue in question includes L.I.F.E, Burna Boy’s 2013 debut album, which announced him to a generation, and the 2016 follow-up Redemption, alongside the breakout singles “Like to Party” and “Tonight” that established the Afro-fusion template he has since taken to arenas across the world.
960 Music Group entered the Nigerian music investment landscape in 2013, acquiring stakes in a string of independent labels as institutional capital began flowing into the industry. Their purchase of a 40% equity stake in Aristokrat Records made them its single largest shareholder.
“We raised money to acquire an interest in investing in certain record labels,” a 960 Music stakeholder told Nigerian Entertainment Today, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect relationships. “Aristokrat was one of them. We made money available, and they tried to scale up.”
When Burna Boy’s contract with Aristokrat lapsed in 2014 without renewal, the catalogue sat quietly as his global profile drove its commercial value steadily upward. The silence broke in early 2024, when Spaceship Music, the imprint run by Burna Boy and his mother, Bose Ogulu, initiated talks to acquire the catalogue. Deal memos circulated to the stakeholders, including 960 Music Group, revealed that Aristokrat allegedly owed Burna Boy and his producer Leriq nearly $300,000 in unpaid royalties, and that the label had taken a $300,000 advance from distribution giant The Orchard.
While 960 Music says it was soliciting competing bids to maximise the value of what it calls the company’s “crown jewel,” it found out through a third party that the deal had already closed. “We tried to reach out to Piriye,” the stakeholder said. “He just went ghosting. Later, we found out the catalogue was sold. 960 Music would not get anything. It didn’t make any sense.”
According to 960 Music, proceeds from the multi-million-dollar sale were allegedly diverted for personal use or channelled outside Aristokrat’s official accounts — the funds, they claim, never reached the business.
The matter is currently before the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt (Suit No. FHC/PH/CS/188/2024: 960 Music Ltd v. Aristokrat Records Nigeria Limited & Ors.), where 960 Music is seeking the nullification of the catalogue assignment and a refund of proceeds.
In addition, criminal proceedings have been instituted in relation to the same transaction (Charge No. FHC/L/1087/2025: Commissioner of Police v. Aristokrat Records Nigeria Limited & Anor.), alleging fraudulent conversion and related offences.
“You cannot sell 100 per cent of an asset when you only have the authority to manage the company,” an unnamed 960 Music executive told Pulse Nigeria. “We are asking the court to bring those assets back.”
The 960 Music stakeholder who spoke to Nigerian Entertainment Today has been blunt about what the delays in proceedings represent. “What they’ve done effectively is basically play games. The accused person seems to have received better treatment than the people who were cheated.“
In early 2026, the court was informed that settlement negotiations had collapsed, confirming that behind-the-scenes efforts to resolve the matter had failed and that both parties are now committed to a judicial outcome.
Isokrari has not publicly responded to any of the allegations.
Why Warner Music Is Now Exposed
The most significant escalation in recent weeks has not come from the Lagos or Port Harcourt courtrooms. It has come from a formal legal demand directed at one of the world’s three largest music companies.
Netng reported that Lagos-based law firm Creative Legal, acting on behalf of 960 Music Limited, formally notified Warner Music Group over the alleged transfer of Burna Boy’s early catalogue — specifically L.I.F.E (2013) and Redemption (2016) — demanding the immediate suspension of all distribution, marketing, monetisation, licensing and related commercial activities tied to the works until the matter is resolved in court.
Warner Music Group acts as the global distributor for Spaceship Music. Because they are the ones technically managing the marketing, monetisation, and synchronisation of these albums, they have become a central figure in the lawsuit. Creative Legal has officially petitioned WMG to freeze everything. Warner was given seven days to respond in writing, but that deadline elapsed with no response from the distributor.
“There are two things we intend to do,” a Creative Legal spokesperson told Netng last month. “The first is that they can be added as a co-defendant. The crux of this matter still links with Warner Music. If a matter is in court, all actions on that subject matter should ordinarily be suspended until the conclusion of the matter.
If they continue to enjoy rights over a subject matter that is in court, that would defeat the purpose for which the matter is in court. They risk liability of being added to the suit, so that an injunction order can be placed against them to restrain them from continuing the unlawful distribution of the Burna Boy albums.”
For a corporation of Warner’s scale, the stakes are not trivial. Being formally joined to an active Nigerian lawsuit and potentially subjected to an injunction freezing the global distribution of one of Afrobeats’ most commercially significant early catalogues would directly entangle its relationship with one of the genre’s biggest stars.
Every stream of L.I.F.E and Redemption on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube currently flows through Warner’s infrastructure. That infrastructure is now in legal crosshairs.
What Burna Boy Wanted — And What He May Lose
The painful irony at the centre of this dispute is that the transaction it concerns was almost certainly an act of artistic liberation. The 2024 deal was Burna Boy’s attempt to do precisely what Taylor Swift has become a global symbol for doing: reclaiming ownership of the early recordings that defined him.
Swift’s Taylor’s Version re-recording project, launched after Scooter Braun acquired her first six albums through the purchase of Big Machine Records in 2019, reshaped how the entire music industry talks about catalogue and masters. Prince waged a career-long war with Warner Bros. over the same principle, writing “slave” on his face and changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol before finally winning back his rights.
Burna Boy’s attempt to quietly purchase his own origin story has run into the same wall that has complicated these battles for decades: the past has shareholders, and shareholders have lawyers.
If the Port Harcourt court rules in favour of 960 Music, Burna Boy’s own label could be forced to surrender the rights to his breakout hits back to the original partners. The very ownership shift the deal was designed to achieve could be legally dismantled, and it would be one of the most significant reversals in modern African music business history.
The Industry Watching
In Nigeria, the precedents are well-established in their dysfunction. Brymo and Chocolate City. Kizz Daniel and G-Worldwide. Artist-label disputes are a recurring feature of the Afrobeats economy.
But none of those cases reached this surface area — multiple Nigerian courts, a major international distributor under formal legal notice, and implications that ripple into streaming platforms, publishing deals, and licensing agreements across dozens of international territories.
For the global music industry, this case is a landmark reminder that in the era of Afrobeats’ global dominance, proper corporate governance and shareholder rights are not just paperwork; they are the bedrock of the entire business. Every investment fund eyeing African music catalogues, every international distributor cutting deals with Lagos-based labels, every superstar attempting to quietly reclaim their masters is watching how Nigerian courts handle what happens next.
Monday’s hearing may produce the breakthrough that two prior dates failed to deliver. Or it may produce another absence, another adjournment, another procedural delay in a case that already has a pattern of them.
Either way, the 960 Music’s frustration captures something larger than a corporate grievance: Who truly owns the sound of early Burna Boy?
By Monday, the answer may be one step closer. Or the question may simply be postponed again.
Netng will be following the proceedings on April 20. The criminal case reference is Charge No. FHC/L/1087/2025. The civil suit reference is FHC/PH/CS/188/2024.
