Wu-Tang Clan founder joins Disturbing Tha Peace co-founders Chaka Zulu and Jeff Dixon, family office CIH Group, and Ewing Athletics owner David Goldberg as an investor in the company founded by DMG Clearances’ Deborah Mannis-Gardner and Tracklib founder Pär Almqvist.
November 10, 2026 (Hockessin, DE) – AYO Music Group, the invitation-only music copyright administrator founded by Deborah Mannis-Gardner and Pär Almqvist, today announced investments from rapper, producer and Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA, Atlanta music executives and founders of Disturbing Tha Peace Records Chaka Zulu and Jeff Dixon, Atlanta and Johannesburg based family office CIH Group, and New York entrepreneur David Goldberg.
The announcement comes four days before the 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, November 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, where RZA will be inducted as a member of Wu-Tang Clan and AYO client MC Lyte will be honored in the Early Influence category.
“Most music creators have never seen a full accounting of what their music actually earns. That is a data, business model, and supply chain problem, and fixing it is the main reason AYO exists. This round of investments lets us sign and actively serve more clients to collect what they are already owed – fulfilling our mission to get music creators paid,” said Pär Almqvist, co-founder and CEO of AYO Music Group.
RZA
RZA is the founder and chief architect of Wu-Tang Clan, one of the most successful and influential groups in hip-hop history. Beyond producing the group’s sound, he designed its business: Wu-Tang signed collectively to Loud/RCA while each member remained free to sign solo deals with competing labels, sending Method Man to Def Jam, GZA to Geffen and Ghostface Killah to Sony, all under the Wu-Tang banner. RZA has described the arrangement as a financial movement rather than a record deal. It was unprecedented at the time and is widely credited with changing how hip-hop groups structure their business.
“I have spent thirty years making sure the people who created the music got paid for it, and I have watched a lot of money disappear into paperwork along the way. Deborah and Pär have built something that actually finds it. That is a mission I want to be part of,” said RZA.
Chaka Zulu and Jeff Dixon co-founded Disturbing Tha Peace Records with Ludacris and have spent more than two decades building artist careers and businesses in Atlanta. CIH Group is a multi-asset family office led by Boikai Cummings, investing across the United States and Africa. Cummings is also a partner in Legacy Publishing, home to catalogs by Aaliyah, Timbaland and Missy Elliott. David Goldberg, owner of Ewing Athletics, was AYO’s first investor when the company was founded.
Deborah Mannis-Gardner founded DMG Clearances in 1996 and has cleared samples for Drake, Beyoncé, Eminem, Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar, among many others. She has been named to Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players list and Forbes’ 50 Over 50. Pär Almqvist founded sample-licensing platform Tracklib in 2014 and served as its CEO for a decade. The two founded AYO in 2023 to make sure artists, songwriters, and producers collect all the royalties their music earns. AYO actively administers publishing, neighboring rights and recordings globally, and its catalog now has songs totaling well over 10 billion streams.
One example of AYO’s positive impact: Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer Domingo co-wrote “Internally Bleeding” with Immortal Technique in 2003. After he signed with AYO in 2024, the company started meticulously combing through his catalogue to find possible discrepancies. 23 years after the album release, AYO unlocked significant publishing revenue for Domingo that he had never collected before.
AYO’s clients include MC Lyte, Pete Rock, LeToya Luckett and Lil Mama as well as Mach-Hommy, Dave East, Harry Fraud, North West, Chicago West, Silkk The Shocker, Junglepussy, Drumma Boy, Mathematics, Julian Jackson, and many more. View a complete list of clients at ayomusicgroup.com/clients.
About AYO Music Group
AYO Music Group is an invitation-only music copyright administration company founded by Deborah Mannis-Gardner (DMG Clearances), Pär Almqvist (Tracklib) and Stacey Haber (The Music Firm). AYO provides global administration of publishing, neighboring rights and recordings, and actively works to make sure artists, songwriters, and producers control their copyrights and collect everything their music earns. For more information, visit ayomusicgroup.com.
Media Contacts
Laurie Jakobsen, Jaybird Communications, laurie@jaybirdcom.com
Bill Greenwood, Jaybird Communications, bill@jaybirdcom.com