Liam Payne, member of the temporarily (?) defunct One Direction and possibly-maybe father of Cheryl's baby, is setting his sights on a global takeover.

Not to be outdone by the other lads, Liam's just inked a deal with Republic Records for new music distribution in North America, which is "coming soon."

From the official Republic press release:

A driving force of One Direction with numerous key songwriting credits, he sold over 20 million albums worldwide as part of the group in addition to receiving six BRIT Awards, seven American Music Awards, 11 MTV Europe Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, and 27 Teen Choice Awards. He kicks off his solo career with new music coming soon via an alliance with Capitol UK label led by Nick Raphael.

About the signing, Liam’s manager Simon Oliveira Co-Founder of Doyen Global says, “With Republic’s track record of launching powerhouse talent in the US including superstars like Drake, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Lorde, and countless others, I am more than confident we have assembled the best possible team alongside Capitol’s UK label to launch and shepherd Liam’s solo career.

Liam — AKA Big Payno, if you've been following his brief side career as a DJ-slash-remixer — previously confirmed inking a record deal with Capitol back in July in the UK, but it seems now that he's got his sights set on conquering the whole globe with his music.

This pretty much means every member of 1D's solo career is accounted for: Harry Styles inked a solo deal with Columbia, Zayn Malik's under RCA (his Mind of Mine was released in early 2016), Niall Horan just dropped his Capitol Records debut "This Town" last month, and Louis Tomlinson launched his own record label, Triple Strings Ltd., as an imprint of Simon Cowell's Syco Records.

Which 1D boy will have the most successful solo career overall? Vote below.

Liam Payne's Hottest Instagram Photos:

More From KISS FM 96.9