Runtown whose real name is Douglas Jack Agu is one of Nigeria’s currently trending artiste. He is a song writer and a singer who has been active since 2010 but starting gaining prominence from 2012 till date.
He was born into a comfortable home on the 14th of August in 1989 in Enugu but grew up in Lagos where he had his foundational education, the death of his father led to his relocation to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city with his mother who was in the civil service back then, they relocated back to Enugu in 2015 to pursue his mother’s political interest.
He eventually finished secondary school in Enugu. He enrolled at a fashion school in New York where he studied fashion management.
The singer whose music genre is a combination of Hip Hop, dancehall and afro pop with Sean Kingston, Bob Marley and Kanye West as his musical influences initially dreamt of becoming a professional basket ball player but the universe had different plans.
In 2007, he moved with his friend Phyno who is also a successful nigerian artist from Enugu south east to Lagos state in the south West to pursue a career in music.
Lagos is the Los Angeles of Nigeria, a budding center of entertainment. All entertainers and aspiring entertainers moved here to pursue their career.
Runtown started in Lagos by doing under ground collaborations with artists like J Martins and Timaya. Later in 2007 he released his own single titled “Runtown”.
In 2008, he worked together with Phyno to form a record label under which he released two additional singles titled “Activity Pikin” and “Party like its 1980”.
In 2012, Lara Morgan a Jamaican American so her featured him in a single that topped the carribean music charts titled “High On You”.
The song “Amarachi Versacea” with Phyno and “Gallardo” with David raised his profile as an artist and caught the attention of an entertainment label “Eric Manny Entertainment” who signed him up.
The Gallardo single with Davido had a massive reception and its video which was shot by Clarence Peters and featured Phyno and skales was able to gather good views on you tube in a very short while.
In 2014, there was a controversy surrounding “Aye” Davido’s hit single which featured Runtown. It was speculated that the talented singer who is a pro at creating unique sounds like the sound god he is, was the original writer of the song, Runtoen cleared the air in an interview by saying inquiries on the single should be forwarded to Davido.
Early 2016, the singer had issues with his record label Eric Manny Entertainment, it was rumored that the label had obtained an injunction from a Federal High Court in Nigeria to stop the singer from performing at events and recirding sings on the allegation that he does business wjthout the knowledge of the label.
Runtown denied the allegations in an interview with Pulse Nigeria, and explained the sisues he had with the label were issues of breach of contract, extortion and threat to life.
He orted ways with the label and released two more singles that did well on radio stations and featured with more artistes like Wizzypro and Patoranking.
He finally released his debut album titled “Ghetto University” in November 2015. The album which generated good money on MTN music plus and made top charts in Nigeria, featured Phyno, Wizkid, DJ Khaled, Uhuru and Anati.
On the 4th of November 2016, Runtown released the most successful song in his entire career “Mad Over you” which is inspired by the Ghanaian Alkeyida sounds and African beauty, still tops music charts till date.
It has rocked the entire entertainment industry and has been used by comedian and movie producer Bovi as a sound track in his latest movie “10 days in sun city”.
It is currently Nigeria’s most celebrated single, he released it and “For life” to proof to his fans that the feud with his former music label did not affect his talent and creativity as speculated by the public.
His most latest single “For life” is still made with the same contents as “Mad Over You”, some Nigerians took to social media and asked him to stop duplicating “mad over you”. This howeverdid not stop the song from topping charts, dominating air waves and receiving accolades.
Sometime this year, he released another single “For life” which has also done well in music charts and made it to the covered BET jams list.
BET jams is an american digital cash television network which is controlled byBET networks and owned by Viacom. It features urban and contemporary music videos.
Apart from the likes of Tecno and Reminisce, Rubtown is currently Nigeria’s most explosive music act even though we cannot tell how intends to maintain the tempo and profile of making hit tunes. Runtown also frequents Cike studio in Nairobi, kenya.
Songs And Collaborations of Runtown
Runtown began his career with multiple collaborations with J Martins and Timaya in 2007. He has made hits with David, Phyno, M. I Abaga, Uhuru, DJ Khaled, Shizzi, WizzyPro, Skales, Patoranking Barbapappa, Hafeez, Anati and has worked with music producers like T spice, Maleek Berryvand Pheelz. His album Ghetto university was recorded between a period of two years and was released in November, 2015.
Its first single was “Gallardo”, “Banger” was the second single while “Bend down Pause” was the album’s third single off the seventeen tracked album.
His popular songs are “Gallardo” (2014), The Banger (2014), Bend down Pause (2015), Mad Over You (2016), Lagos to Kampala (2016) and “For life” (2016).
Deals, Endorsements And Net Worth of Runtown
Runtown recently signed an endorsement deal with infinix mobile, adeal that makes him the face of infinix and will help in pushing the brand.
In 2015, he signed an endorsement deals with Adidas a renowned sports company and the second biggest sports wear manufacturer in the world and became the first African artist to do so. He also makes a lot of money from ring back tunes on Telcos in Nigeria. The singer is worth about $1.5 million.
Awards of Runtown
Ghana Naija Showbiz Awards 2017: Artiste of the year.
Ghana Music Awards 2017: Artist of the year.
Nigerian Entertainment Awards 2014: Best Collaboration of the year.
Nominations of Runtown
Headies 2014: Best Rated Act
Nigerian Entertainment Awards 2015: Best Pop Artist.
City People Entertainment Awards 2015: Artist of the year.
Nigerian Entertainment Awards 2017: Best single and Best Afro Pop artist of the year.
