Excellent Afrobeat entertainment today by Audu Maikori? Meet Audu Maikori, a pioneer and promoter of Afrobeat music , media and entertainment Entrepreneur & entertainment lawyer focused on film, Esports and TV. Over the years I have learned to always listen to my instincts and that inner above every other voice , because the people telling you no, don’t know your vision and your capacity – if I had listened to all naysayers – I wouldn’t be here today- would probably be in some dreary job miserable as hell! Every business comes with its unique set of problems and that can be overwhelming but I had solid partners/ co -founders each with complementary skills and together we figured out the problems as they came – so partnership is key . But the key thing that kept us going was our collective ambition and vision which was to give African talent a place in the global conversation. I recall that in the beginning when we started the record label many people wrote us off- then didn’t believe in the music industry as being viable at the time( and rightly so) but It was very clear to us that it could be- and that faith in its potentials was worth risking everything to achieve that dream. I quit my job , relocated from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria to focus on building the dream.
Audu Maikori is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur, lawyer and creative industry expert. Audu sits on several boards including Recycle Points (a recycling and waste management company), Global Rights Africa (a human rights and advocacy NGO) , Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and is the Chairman of Beat Drone (a drone tech company). He is an alumnus of the University of Jos, Pan African University, Lagos and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of management, Boston respectively.
Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more? I am involved in several businesses and my role differs in each of them- but for the purpose of this conversation – you can say that like every entrepreneur – when the business(Chocolate City Music) started – I was involved in a lot of the ideation, strategy and visioning alongside my partners Paul and Yahaya but as CEO I was involved in mostly executing our vision – the vision then was to create a local company that could help talented youth to achieve their artistic and creative dreams commercially without losing their authenticity.
Audu Maikori: Well, the first challenge I had was around perception. Nobody in the North understood what music business is. Even up to now, they still don’t understand. That’s why you see there are not many Northern labels. When I started, I think there was only KD World; it was the only label that was existing at that time. It had Terry Tha Rapman, Pherowshuz and others. So I saw the opportunity and built on it. If you check, there were many talented artistes in the North. Just look at 2 Face, he is a Benue boy but moved to Lagos. P-Square are Jos boys but moved to Lagos. Everybody was moving to Lagos because of the poor perception the Northerners had.
It’s been a busy last few weeks for Group CEO of Chocolate City Entertainment, Audu Maikori. Our CEO lifted the curtain on his personal experience of the event. These were our favourite takeaways: The changing perception of music and business in Africa. The overwhelming sentiment regarding African music and musicians as a whole, Audu shared, is one of excitement and intrigue.
ESAIYO, a data fabric company, has added Roberto Clemente Jr. and Audu Maikori to their team. Mr. Clemente and Mr. Maikori will be serving as brand ambassadors and will also be joining ESAIYO’s advisory board. Their additions bring expertise that better position the company in expanding its “Infrastructure as a Service” offering internationally and in the US. Audu Maikori is a lawyer with multi sectoral legal experience in infrastructure, public transport systems, privatization and intellectual property. He is also a multi award winning entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working in the media and entertainment industry. Find additional details on Audu Maikori.