Milli spoke about his time with the record label led by rapper and CEO, M.I Abaga.
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Milli(Press)
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Nigerian rapper, Milli, in a statement obtained by the media has addressed his exit from Chocolate City.
In a 5-part story obtained the media, the rapper shared emotional details about what happened in his career since he got signed to Chocolate City.
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Mi Abaga and Milli
(Press)
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Mi Abaga and Milli(Press)
The rapper was signed by M.I Abaga to Loopy Music in 2013, but made a splash during the 2015 merger of the record label with Chocolate City
as one of the artistes who were officially signed. He went on to
release a number of singles under the record label, including featuring
on their 2015 compilation album, ‘The Indestructible Choc Boi Nation’.
A couple of weeks ago it was revealed that Milli, was no longer with the record label, and it was confirmed by the label that the release was amicable.
In
the story, the rapper revealed that his time at Loop was filled with a
refusal to allow him release music, a concerted effort to hold him back,
and revelations about why he has been unable to release new music.
Milli
admitted that his relationship with Chocolate City was never one that
favored him, instead his expertise was used to release music for M.I
Abaga and the Chocolate City label.
“It’s been
a long journey – one year in 2014 with M.I. writing and co-producing
the Chairman album, and another year in 2015 being signed with Loopy and
Choc City, writing and co-producing the TICBN album, and working on
individual Choc City artist projects,” the rapper said.
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Milli and M.I Abaga (Instagram)
In an
emotional revelation he emphatically stated that label CEO M.I Abaga was
responsible for many of his troubles, including withholding his
collaboration with Wizkid, and also making him change his style of
artistry to ‘fit in’.
“I know some of y’all
have been asking about the Wizkid feature and if it that was even true.
Well, it did exist, and still exists. I did have a song with Wiz, which
was also supposed to have M.I on it, but unfortunately he took it from
me.
“M.I gave me a choice – if I wanted
to put out Unlooking, I would have to give up the Wizkid feature. I
guess nobody in their right mind would give up a feature with Wiz, but I
did believe in Unlooking, and everybody around me wanted me to release
it. Also, I didn’t want my first release to be a feature, and I knew I
could always find him again, so I gave up the Wizkid track and prepared
the release of Unlooking.
“I created
Unlooking in a really unique way. When I first wrote it, the verses were
different, not Pidgin, but M.I asked me to rewrite the song, and had me
change it from English into Pidgin, to be more “street”… so I did, even
though I never enjoyed remaking the song. But I wanted to make him
happy so I would get all the support I needed by the time Unlooking was
coming out. Unfortunately, after so much time rewriting it, when I
finally dropped the song, he didn’t support me and Unlooking wasn’t
pushed.”
He also
made claims that M.I failed to support his single ‘Unlooking’, and sadly
supported other artistes with similar elements of his art. Stating that
although he popularized ‘Dabbing’ within industry circles, M.I Abaga
showed him minimum support, but showered it on Olamide’s ‘Oya dab’.
“He
didn’t put much effort into promoting it, I could tell, and after
Unlooking, all these new dab songs started coming out and the move that I
had started was jacked from me… I saw M.I supporting Olamide’s dab and
it really hurt me.
I thought M.I was
ashamed of me. He was telling people that Unlooking was just 60% of what
it could have been, and that the only reason people liked it was
because it was in Pidgin. There was no budget for promotion, so I had to
hustle by myself, but I am just one person and I can’t win if my own
people don’t believe in me…” Milli said.
Tired
of the lack of activity on his career, Mill found sponsors who would
partner with Chocolate City to push his record, and help create an
imprint under Chocolate City, but that was rebuffed by M.I. That was
when he had to leave the record label.
“In
December last year, I met some cool and serious people that not only
believe in me and my music, but they also want to see me shine. My new
team wanted to work with Choc City but Choc City didn’t want that.
“All
this while, all CC artists were told to build their own teams. And here
I was, with a dope team that wanted nothing from the label but the
opportunity to invest in me, and work on my promo and branding together
with the label, and CC said no. They said “Either all us or nothing”.
“So
what choice did I have? Sit and wait some more, or work with people who
actually believe in me? I didn’t want to leave the label, but they
didn’t really leave me a choice… So as much as it pained me to leave my
fam behind, we started the release process in January…”
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Milli(Pulse)
Milli is set
to unveil his new record label, “Up Next”, where he will seek to
restart his career, and take full artistic control of his music.
“But
I’ve got my own label now, Up Next, a dope team, and I’ve got you guys,
and that’s all I need. But I can’t lie, it’s gonna be tough. I already
know that he and his people have been talking to the media, and I don’t
know how that will affect what the blogs will write, and how much radio
and TV airplay I will get for my music… Maybe they will shut me out, he
has people everywhere, so it’s possible for him to do things his way…
Some of the social media influencers even told me they don’t want to
promote my new projects, for fear of upsetting M.I or Choc City…’
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