Runtown Parts Ways With Eric Manny Records on Grounds of Extortion and Threat to Life
Nigerian singer, songwriter and producer Runtown has parted ways with his record label, Eric Manny Records (or at least he’s trying to) and they didn’t do so on the best of terms. Eric Manny, owned by billionaire businessman, Okwudili Umenyiora, has gotten a court injunction stopping Runtown from performing as an artist, amongst other things, pending when they settle their issues.
Runtown got his lawyers to write to the label, claiming threat to life, extortion, and that he didn’t get his payment/royalties from performances, ring-back tunes and etc. He also said he has returned all properties he received from the label when he signed with them in 2014.
Douglas Jack Agu was born on the 19th of August, 1989. Better known by his stage name, Runtown is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and producer with a diverse musical style mix of hip-hop, R&B, reggae and rap. After moving to Lagos from Enugu State with Phyno in 2007, he started doing underground collaborations with artists like J-Martins and Timaya. In 2008, he partnered with Phyno to form a record label called Penthauz during which he released his first two singles “Party Like It’s 1980” and “Activity Pikin”. He collaborated with Davido on his song “Gallardo” which brought him more attention. Few months later, he signed a multi-million Naira contract with Eric-Manny Entertainment owned by Prince Okwudili Umenyiora, the C.E.O of Dilly Motors.
Runtown released his first single titled “Runtown” which was produced by Soge in 2007. His 2010 single titled “Forever” had a video directed by IvanEdd films.
In 2012, Jamaican/American singer Laza Morgan featured Runtown on a song titled “High on You” which did big on the Caribbean charts. J. Martins featured Runtown on a song off his Elevation album titled “Tonight”; he also worked with Phyno on a song titled “Anam-Achi Vers-Achi” which was produced by WizzyPro. In an interview with NotJustOk.com, he said he acquired his musical inspirations from Sean Kingston, Bob Marley and Kanye West.
On 29 January 2014, Runtown collaborated with Davido to release a song produced by T-Spize titled “Gallardo” which won the Best Collaboration of The Year award at the 2014 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. He later released the video which got over 418,000 views on YouTube in its first 2 months. The video features cameos from Patoranking, Skales and Phyno; it was shot in Nigeria and directed by Clarence Peters.
Runtown’s career took a huge step after he signed a recording contract with Eric-Manny Entertainment through his friend, releasing “Successful” and “Domot” which received frequent airplay.
Runtown was featured on WizzyPro’s “Emergency” song which also featured Skales and Patoranking. The song was produced by WizzyPro and released on 2 November 2014. The music video for “Emergency” which was directed by Patrick Elis was released on 19 January 2014.
On November 23, 2015, Runtown released his debut studio album titled Ghetto University. Ghetto University featured appearances from DJ Khaled, Phyno, Wizkid, Uhuru and Anatii. The album made him listed in the “Top 5 Most Streamed Artist” in Nigeria, generating over N35 million turn over on MTN Music Plus.
