Duke Concept

Duke Concept is an event production and management company founded in 2013 by Osita Ugeh, based in New York. The company works with African artists, primarily in afrobeats, but has expanded into other music cultures, including Caribbean artists working in reggae. They have grown the afrobeat audience in the U.S, by producing shows in prominent venues.

History
Duke Concept was founded in 2013 by Osita Ugeh. Prior to this it was known as Duke Entertainment, originally founded in Lagos, Nigeria. Ugeh was born in Nigeria, but moved to New York in 2011, launching the company there as Duke Concept in 2013.

Duke Concept focused on developing the events infrastructure for afrobeat performers in the U.S, working towards artists to be given larger venues to perform in, since most afrobeat shows there at the time took place in small clubs and warehouses, unlike the larger ones standard in Lagos.

Purpose
Duke Concept has brought a number of African artists over to perform in the U.S, with its purpose being to develop the afrobeat audience there. They have produced tours for a number of afrobeat artists, including Wizkid, Davido, Tiwa Savage, and Burna Boy. In 2021 Duke Concept booked the first afrobeat artist to headline the Hollywood Bowl, and in 2022 booked the first Nigerian artist to headline Madison Square Garden.

The company also works with Caribbean artists, looking for opportunities to create cross-cultural connections between afrobeat and reggae cultures, suggesting African and Jamaican music are complimentary, and can learn from each other’s shared histories within the African diaspora. They established and produce the music festivals Tribeville, a Houston-based festival celebrating various forms of black music, founded in 2023, and Rolling Cocoa, a travelling Ghanaian music and culture festival, founded in 2024.

Since 2021 Duke Concept has been in a partnership with the entertainment company Live Nation. Although the two companies had been co-producing afrobeat shows since 2018, they established a formal partnership in 2021, in which Duke Concept handles production and logistics with Live Nation providing support and a network of venues.

In his role as Duke Concept CEO, Ugeh was named a Billboard International Power Player in 2022, and an honoree at Africon in 2023.