By Osho Oluwatosin
No doubt, the youngest music stars making waves currently in Nigeria are Wizkid, Davido, and Olamide. Any artiste will come after them. They have done a lot of songs, gotten endorsements, and recorded songs that had massive airplay, videos that won awards, and are still doing more, Arguably, in Nigeria currently, they are the richest among their age grades when it comes to music.
Everything was going fine between them until last year 2017, I mean, they all had almost the same status in the music industry. They all have almost the same crowd of fans and had sold out shows until one of them, Olamide fell out of the race ( I will explain). One thing I discovered is in Nigeria, even till now, they have their fans, lot of them, but Music is beyond just a region.
Arguably, Ayodeji Balogun ‘Wizkid’ in 2017 had the best concert in the United Kingdom. He had a sold out with the hall of the event filled with lots of people. You would agree with me that Wizkid throughout 2017 was practically not in Nigeria. He technically relocated to the United Kingdom all for Music sake and it really paid off. He sold the highest ticket, meaning he had the highest money and gained so much popularity. Wizkid even got a nomination on the prestigious grammy award though it wasn’t his song directly. Apart from that, Wizkid’s signees were also part of the successful artistes in the year. Everyone knew Mr.Eazi, Maleek Berry. Infact, if you weren’t told, you wouldn’t believe they were signed to Star boy Record Label because their Boss, Wizkid gave them a free hand and don’t even interfere. Infact, he hardly appears in their videos. He sees Music beyond Entertainment, and faced the business aspect of it. Through great management, and we can say Wizkid is the greatest artiste of all time.
On the other hand, although DMW Boss, David Adeleke widely known as ‘Davido’ didn’t follow the same process as Wizkid, he gave Nigerians and the world great music. Everyone knew Davido to always do ‘gra-gra’ songs but the Young man changed his tune. He made sure he gave us something better and continued with the trend. Take a look at his debut single, Damiduro and his master hit song, IF. Davido was an opposite of ‘Damiduro’ character in IF, it was just too cool and ever since then, he released FIA, Flora My Flawa. cool songs, he changed his tune and he was more blown than he was.
It wasn’t a surprise that he won several awards in the year, got endorsements, and has his 30 Billion concert. And Gosh! He made half a billion from that concert and it was completely sold out, why? Davido brought Wizkid, united Mo’hits crew, and in 2017, it was one of the most talked about concert. This is Business, Camping his fans and Wizkid’s fans together, how strategic!
Now to Our Street Credibility brother, Self Acclaimed street King, Olamide Badoo. He has also done greatly in the music industry but Olamide has failed to do justice to the business aspect of Music. Olamide always has OLIC sold-out every year where he uses Eko Hotel and it’s always very filled up. According to reports, the hall he uses there is a 6000 capacity hall but in 2017, Olamide decided to move to Teslim Balogun Stadium, a 24,000 capacity stadium, where did he expect to get crowd to fill it up? This is one of the reasons his 2017 OLIC failed to get to be the talk of the town.
Furthermore, Olamide has been feeding us with the same style of songs, dishing out different dance steps, giving out a lot of slangs but what has Olamide made out of this. This is beyond money. It is about how far you are recognised, not just in your home zone but outside your comfort zone. Recongition won’t come to you, you get it. You don’t just sit down in Nigeria and be claiming king of streets whereas your mates are out there, becoming King of the Kings of street.
I remember in one of his songs, he said he doesn’t need the International recognition, doesn’t need award but why did Olamide fight on stage for his artiste, Lil Kesh over ordinary headies, not grammy or MTV o. I mean, who knows Olamide if he leaves Nigeria? I haven’t heard Olamide do a concert abroad in recent times, and this is killing his career gradually.
Olamide no longer gets on big shows, he wasn’t even on the Gidifest that was just concluded, awards are becoming tough to get which isn’t supposed to be.
It calls for attention how a young man with great prospect could be so comfortable as a local champion. He has the Nigerian Market already, what about the African countries not to talk of United Kingdom, Atlanta, many more.
However, I would say Olamide lacks a good managerial team. Getting endorsements for Olamide was even as a result of his hit songs, not a managerial work at all. Lil Kesh left YBNL without Endorsement, Chinko Ekun left without Endorsements, Adekunle Gold, Viktoh too, now we have Dovolee, Temmie, they have no endorsement.How would they have a very balanced life being with a big star like Olamide.
He just needs a managerial team which will make him realise the need for the international market, shoot him out there, or else, He will never meet up with Wizkid and Davido
– Osho Oluwatosin, Is a Music Critic.