- Digga D is Music Week’s cover star for our May issue, as the superstar rapper and his team – EGA Music president Colin Batsa, Groundworks co-founders Bills GW and Jeffrey Owusu-Dankwa, Mixtape Madness’ Kwabz Oduro Ayim and lawyer Cecilia Goodwin – share their groundbreaking music industry story. Granting a rare interview to celebrate the release of his third mixtape, Noughty By Nature, Digga D (real name Rhys Herbert) tells the tale of the new record and opens up about drill, his journey, his marketing genius and more. This is the story of an artist’s dream rubbing up against circumstance, controversy and the law.
- The subject of this month’s Music Week Interview is Downtown Music Services global president Mike Smith who, after making his name in A&R across records and publishing, expands on the latest chapter of a stellar career. We hear about Smith’s aim to connect continents through music and find out how he plans to make Downtown the No.1 destination for artists and songwriters.
- As her Homecoming Festival returns, we catch up with Grace Ladoja in Lagos as the superstar manager and former Music Week Women In Music Rising Star unveils her aim to be a bridge between Nigeria and the UK. The Metallic founder talks about the next stage for her business empire, looks ahead to Skepta’s return and delivers her verdict on the state of play in the music industry in an unmissable interview.
- Also in the features section, we meet Foals, alongside Joe Kentish and Jennifer Ivory of Warner Records UK, Q Prime’s Peter Mensch, CAA’s Emma Banks and Transgressive’s Toby L to lift the lid on the campaign for Life Is Yours. We hear how, fuelled by the dancefloor, their seventh album is set to underline Foals’ reputation as one of the most innovative rock bands around.
- Elsewhere, we profile Sameul Ademosu, founder of management, records and publishing company The Flight Club. In his first major business interview, Ademosu talks Afrobeats, UK Black music and his plan to grow his company into a global music industry powerhouse.
