ONE FOR THE MUNI, MOST DEF

It's official: The hotly pursued Muni Long and her Supergiant imprint have inked with Def Jam. It’s a big look for Tunji Balogun and his new label team. Long (aka hit songwriter Priscilla Renea) lingered in the Top 5 at Apple Music for the first two months of 2022 with hit “Hrs and Hrs,” which remains in the Top 25 there as of this writing. The track has earned north of 100m U.S. streams YTD and 150m+ worldwide. (Long's success, incidentally, provides a particularly strong example of Apple’s importance in Black music genres.) “Hrs” is now in the Top 10 at Rhythm radio and #3 at Urban, and buzzing away as it prepares to cross to Pop.

We’re told that Long and her team—notably Chris Anokute, Rashad Tyler, J.R. McKee and attorney Scott Felcher—had wanted to be with Def Jam from the get-go and that the delay in getting the deal done stemmed from the complexities of her distribution pact.

What else does Long (who, as Renea, penned or co-penned hits for the likes of Rihanna, Pitbull f/Kesha, Ariana Grande, Fifth Harmony and Selena Gomez) have up her sleeve? We hear she has more than 40 new songs recorded. Stay tuned.

Pictured above (l-r): Long, Balogun, Anokute, Tyler and McKee