As every great football manager knows, lifting that first trophy is crucial to establishing a winning mentality within a club.
And, just as in the beautiful game, so too in the occasionally ugly music industry.
So it’s no wonder that 10 months after EGA Distro won the Independent Label Award at the 2023 A&R Awards (now the British Music Business Awards), chairman and president Colin Batsa is still buzzing.
“It’s amazing, the company has only been around for eight months,” he said with a smile. “Then my team became Manchester City – it was our first league title and that gave everyone here a lot of confidence.”
Extending the football analogy, Barthesa says hello MBW At EGA’s Kensington High Street offices (purposely located in the old Globe building as a statement of intent), he wore a PSG tracksuit top and referred to himself as EGA’s “coach”.
Of course, his company is now competing in the UEFA Champions League, hoping to retain the title after a hugely successful D-Block Europe 2024 (rolling stones Providing assistance to the veterans’ first number one album), Potter Payper, Skrapz and K-Trap.
“We’re no longer on the radar, we’re seen as competitors, but there’s enough space for everyone,” Bartesa said with a smile. “I’m honored to be able to compete against some professionals, it’s a dream come true for me…”
Barthesa’s own rise in the league has been difficult. At the age of 15, a friend gave him a Notorious BIG tape, and he became obsessed with hip-hop music and soon formed his own rap group. But one day, during a photo shoot, he was intrigued by the appearance of a man who was not part of the group but seemed to be giving orders.
“I asked him what he did and he said, ‘I’m a manager,'” Bartesa said. “All the girls were around him and I was like, ‘Fuck rap, I want to be him!’ I put the mic down and started reading every book I could…”
Batsa became his band manager, then worked at MOBO and UK Street Sounds, where he met EGA co-founder and director Victor Omos (“He gave me wings – I didn’t I know what he saw in me, but he once told everyone, ‘In five years, he’s going to be the best executive in black music.’”).
They began managing the likes of Devlin, Ghetts and Grinal, while Batsa also worked at Channel U (the leading platform for black music at the time) with the late Darren Platt. Devlin broke through on the platform, and EGA signed him to Island, which also set a new Meridian Dan record. german whipwhich became a key catalyst for the next wave of grime.
“I’m honored to be able to compete against some professionals, it’s a dream come true for me…”
Colin Busta
Island put its stamp on EGA, with Batsa and Omos hiring Charley Snook (now EGA’s general manager and business partner) and signing everyone from KSI to Oh Wnnder (“I’m a little tired of rap, so I signed an indie band – no” people can believe that, but it felt good to do something outside of my comfort zone”).
Shortly after Darcus Beese, the then brand president, went to the United States, Batsa left Island and saw that the DIY wind was blowing and decided to enter the distribution field.
He first linked up with Caroline International and set up a separate consultancy with Capitol, running his own EGA label while also bringing a string of hit artists into Universal’s orbit, including D-Block Europe, Aitch and Afrobeats Sensational Rema (“I knew he was going to explode in the world”).
But ultimately, EGA decided to go it alone because, according to Batsa, EGA is one of the few black-owned, female-run music companies on this side of the country — and the U.S. arm of the renamed Virgin Music Group has made some minority The equity investment was partly for Barthesa’s quip, and partly for their transatlantic reach, as the time difference meant “they wouldn’t bother me”.
In 2023, he renamed EGA Music Group EGA Distro, building it into a hybrid company capable of signing artists directly or doing service deals. Since then, he has incorporated EGA into mEGAhit and claims that streaming has made several of his members “millionaires.”
But Barca himself remains aloof from Guardiola as he sat down to talk to him. MBW Talk signings, success and why British rap will one day conquer America…
What has EGA done to take companies like D-Block Europe and Potter Payper (pictured, inset) to the next level?
It’s about continuity. At D-Block I played for Virgin, I signed for them when I was a striker and now I’m the coach but they still play for me.
The tactics haven’t changed – well, what has changed is that I can specialize. This is my team’s and my decision. Even though Virgin is very supportive and has always supported me, I’m still just the forward and I don’t have the final say.
Now that I have the final say, artists have more confidence to come to me. We took first place with D-Block. This is our eighth attempt, and their first No. 1 at EGA shows as much.
I coach and am able to make the right decisions to benefit them because no one knows them better than me.
What made you want to leave the island?
At that time, I didn’t like the industry. It’s so rigid, and I tell people, ‘Here come the entrepreneurs. They’re going to want to do things their way, and they’re not going to sign a traditional agreement.
me and [Sony chairman/CEO] Jason Iley and he asked, ‘What do you want to do?’ and I said, ‘I want to be in a record label because there’s no one like me out there’. At that time, the music released was mainly rock, indie and dance music, and there was no black music.
Half my friends thought I was crazy because I took a pay cut to go into distribution, where the margins were razor thin. But I was like, ‘Trust me, this is the future’.
Where are the traditional labels?
I have a lot of respect for legacy brands because they do great things, but this wasn’t for me. I don’t know if I was an A&R person, I was more of an entrepreneur – but I didn’t know that at the time. All I know is that these rules are too much for me.
People may argue with me, but I believe I made distribution sexy, so a lot of young artists and entrepreneurs followed my lead. There was a time when no one wanted to sign a record deal, they wanted to build their own career. But some artists need a record deal. Some people don’t do it because they are entrepreneurs, but you always have options.
I need to take a stand. Black music has never had an independent and representative company like in America, where you have Def Jam, cash money and quality control – I feel like I’m the right person to do it.
Why hasn’t this happened in the UK before?
The market has been underground for a long time. The infrastructure is not there.
Back then, a lot of artists were either signed directly to a professional musician or directly to a distribution company, but now, in this day and age, people are signing people and need someone who can say, ‘Look, I’ve done this, this is me about it, trust me.” Hopefully this will inspire other labels – NQ and 5K are both phenomenal labels with amazing young black people at the top.
It used to be that us Brits needed time to improve our culture because someone was rapping in an American accent. Nowadays, there’s nothing better than rapping in your own accent, and hip-hop is very local to every region.
Still, British rap has traditionally struggled to find success in the United States: can that change?
Absolutely. The hottest rapper in the world right now is Central Cee, so there’s a start. Drake became the biggest rapper in the world, and he’s from Canada, so another English-speaking country can definitely dominate. It’s just a matter of time.
We’ve been busy building our base here and now we have to expand. I believe one day a British rapper can rule the world.
What needs to be done to make this a reality?
We need someone who is a global hit, making records that can travel around the world, not just work in the UK or Europe.
Someone needs to go out there and really tick the boxes. You need the courage that America had when it built hip-hop.
Some of us still think we need to conquer the motherland first – it’s only now that we’re getting the love and respect we need through award shows and things like that. But gradually, we are there.
The biggest rap song in the world last year was [Dave & Central Cee’s] sprinter. It’s a very British record. Americans may not know anything about the lingo, but it sounds amazing to them because it gets more plays than any rap record in the world. We are getting there slowly but surely.
How about EGA – can you hack America?
I’m here to build the brand and conquer the UK, but my future plans are definitely to conquer the US. Just like artists are destroying America, we need one [UK] Companies do the same.
That’s why I did this deal [with Virgin Music Group US]there are footprints. If my investors are from there, they can help me make connections and help promote the brand there.
Why are services deals so effective for UK rap?
Flexibility, speed – many of us in this world have an entrepreneurial spirit because we grew up reading about Jay-Z, Birdman and Master P.
It allows us to learn from our own mistakes and build our own path. Don’t get me wrong, there are artists who are signed to big names and do well. But the scene needs to develop a structure, preferably in an independent space, where everyone can create their own label, their own directory. Many of us would like to have it.
What do you look for in an artist?
I like people who have a vision of their own, who are hungry, who believe in themselves, who are sure of who they are. I look for leaders in what they do, but I also look for special talents.
“I Like those who have a vision, are hungry and believe in themselves.
I also don’t like normal because I like people who have a good cultural stance, not just TikTok hot guys. Don’t get me wrong, if it works out I’ll sign it, but I’m looking for someone I can build a career with, not a short-term quick fix.
You recently signed Nines. Is this a competitive deal?
I was so fast, so hungry, I didn’t even see my competition. Others don’t even have a chance!
We had a great friendship, so he came to me and gave me priority – I didn’t even give him a second to reconsider or talk to anyone else. He was a signing on my wish list – one of the most important signings of my career. It made me feel like I could sign a superstar to my company.
We started the year with 1st place in D-Block Europe and we hope to end the year with 1st place in Nines. He deserves it, and it’s his last album, so we definitely wanted to end on a high.
Is he really going to retire?
100%. This isn’t Jay-Z’s retirement, he’s definitely leaving. He has some entrepreneurial ventures that he wants to get into, and he wants to be like Michael Jordan when he retires. Unless Michael Jordan does come back, I’m not sure Nines will!
Who are EGA’s competitors now?
Everyone who releases music. I think of business as a competitive sport; I love competition and it motivates me.
Right up my alley are great companies like 0207 Def Jam, NQ, 5K and Neighborhood. But no one is built like us; we are a master.
The nice thing about EGA Distro is that we’re an independent record label as well as a service company, so we compete with Believes, AWAL, Empires and ADA, but we also compete with Polydor, Dirty Hit and Island Records.
There is such a wide range of options from different music companies; there are even venture capitalists and banks launching records! It’s a wild and broad category at the moment, but the flexibility of indie games comes into play in the modern world.
This article originally appeared in the latest (Q3 2024) issue of MBW’s premium quarterly magazine Music Business UK, out now.
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