Legendary tropical label Fania Records has struck a partnership with !K7 to distribute its releases in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia and to license key releases through !K7 imprint Strut.
The first project under the new partnership was the Sept. 28 re-release of “Salsa Explosion,” a compilation of salsa from the 1960s and 1970s in New York. In the future, releases will include curated compilation series and new remixes of the Fania catalog.
Fania, the most recognizable and iconic name in tropical music, was acquired by Codigo Group in 2009.
Codigo, an entertainment company funded by Signo Equity, a New York-based private equity group, also purchased the Westside Latino catalog last December, which includes the Discuba, Seeco and United Artists Latino catalogs.
All told, the combined assets of Codigo Music, which will now fall under the Fania brand, include more than 20,000 tracks, 2,400 full albums and 200 artists, including Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Beny Moré, Ruben Blades, Willie Colón, Johnny Pacheco, Ray Barreto and Hector Lavoe, with recordings going back to the 1940s.
The !K7 label group includes four independent lables: !K7 (electronic/ avant-garde pop), Strut (funk/soul/disco/Afro), Gold Dust (hip hop), and Rapster (urban).
