Despite fresh court injunction, Runtown hints on new single

Barely hours after a fresh court injunction was instituted at the High Court, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja by his former label, Eric Many Entertainment Limited (Eric Many Records), afro-pop singer, Douglas Jack Agu popularly known as Runtown took to the social media to announce the date and title to his new single.

The new song, which is titled, Oh, Oh, Oh is schedule for release on Friday, July 13 and will serve as a follow up to Unleash, which was released on Friday, June 29, 2018.Eric Many had on Wednesday, July 4, revived the contract dispute that has been ongoing for the past two years following Runtown’s announcement that he was no longer with the label.

The label in a statement signed by its General Manager, Johnson Adumike and published in Punch Newspapers, on Wednesday July 4, made public a court injunction against the Lagos to Kampala crooner for what they term, a case of contempt of an existing court order against him, following the release of Unleash.

‘’We are in court with Runtown for his breach of our Recording Contract. We sued him because while applying to the Registrar of Trademarks in Abuja to register professional names licensed to us during the duration of our contract, Runtown also unilaterally terminated our Recording Contract with him.

“While our Contract is supposed to fall due for expiration on 22nd June 2018, Eric Many has an outstanding balance of about N266,694,755.08 to recoup on our investment and expenses on Runtown.“He also failed to deliver an Album which the Contract requires him to deliver to us during the Contract Period. Under the contract if there is outstanding money or Album by 22nd June 2018, end of the Contract Period, the Contract enters into an Option Period of one year. Runtown has neither honoured the Contract Period nor the Option Period.

“Following our application, Abuja High Court made an Interim Order on 10th May, 2018, barring Runtown from any performance or recording of any song outside our Contract until the issues are sorted out by Court.“The Judge also ordered that status quo be maintained until our Motion praying for this protection is decided. Yet on 27th June 2018, Runtown released a new song outside our Contract.

“Determined to follow due process in our dispute with Runtown we have filed a Contempt of Court case against him. Following Court Order to serve Runtown by publication in the Punch, our Notice of Contempt of Court is published at page 22 of The Punch Newspaper today.“If he still fails to respect Court Order by removing the song, we will follow up with the next steps to ensure Runtown is committed to prison, since he is not above the law.

“If he felt the Court Order is wrong, his lawyer has already appeared in Court and filed papers. It is for his lawyer to show the Court that the Order is wrong. It is not open to Runtown to ignore Court Order.“It is important to state that we are at home with the fact that Runtown does not intend to continue working with us. We are not in any confusion about that. We have therefore not asked the Court to order him to continue working with us.

“Our case is for recovery of our money and the Album he owes in line with the Contract. It is the duty of both sides to abide by Court Orders. So Ericmany will continue to rely on due process until we get justice,” the statement read in parts.The fresh suit will make it the fourth time Eric Many Records, owned by Prince Okwudili Umenyiora also known as Dilly will be taking the Walahi singer to court in the space of two years.

Born August 19, 1989, Runtown, a songwriter and producer with diverse fusion musical style — Hip-hop, R&B, reggae and rap — moved to Lagos with his homeboy brother, Chibuzor Nelson Azubuike popularly known as Phyno in 2007, and started doing underground collaborations with artistes like J-Martins and Timaya.

In 2008, he partnered with the Ezege master to form a record label called Penthauz, and released his first two singles — Party Like It’s 1980 and Activity Pikin. He also collaborated with Davido on his song Gallardo, which was released on January 29, 2014. This brought him more attention. Following the success of Gallardo, Runtown met Dilly in 2014 through Bugo Aneto Okeke, who at a time managed Eric Many Entertainment for Dilly and later managed Runtown until 2016, when he had a fall out with Dilly.A few months later, after the meeting a multi-million Naira contract signed with Eric Manny Entertainment, and that was beginning of a relationship characterised by music success and legal drama.