Chocolate City Music

Chocolate City Music is a Nigeria-based record label, which administers a recording studio, artiste management as well as provides events consultancy services. Originally founded as a night club/rave in 1997 , Chocolate City quickly became the number one promotions outfit in the Northern part of NigeriaFact|date=March 2008 and moved into the industry main stream in 2005 with the launch of the record label (Chocolate City Music).Chocolate City is credited with pioneering the promotion of Northern based musicians around Nigeria with the discovery and signing on of acts like Six FootPlus and Jeremiah Gyang(who's debut album Na BA KA won numerous accolades and acclaim for the artist as well as the label). Chocolate City went on to discover,manage and/or promote the careers of talents like Djinee, M.I, Asa, Djinee, among others, who later won awards both locally and internationally.

In June 2007, Audu Maikori Founder /CEO of Chocolate City won the prestigious British award the International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year (IYMEY) by the British Council, making Nigeria the first country to win 2 global awards in the Young Creative Entrepreneurs Series ( the first was Lanre Lawal (IYDEY) 2005),after beating 9 countries including Philippines, Latvia, Lithuania, Indonesia, India,Malaysia ,Tanzania, Egypt and Poland.

Chocolate City has since worked closely with the Federal Government of Nigeria as well as several international organisations such as the British Council in promoting the creative industries as well as Capacity building projects in and around Nigeria.In April 2008, Chocolate City announced a major collaborative effort in partnership with the British Council and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to take a delegation of Nigerian music stakeholders to London Calling 2008 in a bid to open new vistas for the fast growing Nigerian music industry currently valued at around $500 Million (2007).

Chocolate City has also been an active player in the promotion of the Creative industries globally having participated in several workshops and initiatives. In January 2008,Chocolate City delivered a keynote address on a workshop tagged "Mapping the Creative Industries in Albania" organised by the British Council, Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Ministry of Economy ,Albania.The workshop was aimed at sharing experiences of creative entrepreneurs from around Europe, the UK and Nigeria.

Chocolate City activities were judged to have the capacity to affect the Nigerian music industry on a national scale and received a lot of media coverage from both local and international media. Reuters International produced a documentary on the Chocolate City success story tagged "Music and Money" in recognition of its contributions to the development of the Nigerian Music Industry.

Artists

Artists on the label include:
*M.I
*Jesse Jags
*Djinee
*Faj
*Loopy Crew
*Ruby
*Ice Prince
*Lindsy

Team
*Yahaya Maikori
*Okugo P Aham
*Audu Maikori

Nominations and Awards

Won by Chocolate City Artists include:
*Album of the Year- Nigerian Music Awards 2006
*Musician of the Year -The Future Awards 2006
*Song of the year -HIP HOP WORLD AWARDS 2006
*Producer of the Year-HIP HOP WORLD AWARDS 2006

Nigerian Music Awards and Nominations
*Best New Artist - Djinee 2006
*Song of the year- Djinee 2006
*Album of the Year- Jeremiah Gyang 2006

Hip Hop World Awards (HHWA) 2006
*Best Song- Jeremiah Gyang
*Album of the Year- Jeremiah Gyang
*Producer of the Year- Jeremih Gyang

Hip Hop World Awards (HHWA) 2008
*Lyricist on the Roll- M.I(Jude Abaga)
*Best Rap single -M.I(Jude Abaga)
*Next Rated.M.I(Jude Abaga)

Bring The Noise Project

M.I (Jude Abaga) represented Nigeria on a 12 country tour of the UK and Africa from 2007 - 2008

Sources

* [http://www.creativeconomy.org.uk/iymey/finalist_7.asp]
* [http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-music-iymey-2007]
* [http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/media/article02/020707]
* [http://journals.aol.com/kingbing1/FortiFi/entries/]
* [http://www.africahit.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Nigeria&article=3891]
* [http://creativeconomy.org.uk/InitiativeDetails.asp?HeaderID=44]
* [http://www.londoncalling2007.com/default.aspx.locid-0aznew00p.Lang-EN.htm]
* [http://www.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?storyID=WAO1193020696008]
* [http://todaysdrum.com/?Event=GoToLink&LinkId=14C55CC0-15C5-EA6D-34D9C6442B3E33D5]

External links

* [http://www.chocolatecitymusic.com Website]