Wizkid and Davido have lost the need to evolve, so here’s why the beef is being kept alive

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Wizkid. What could be wrong? What could be the reason for this recent crash out? Make no mistake. Wizkid is no saint. The recent global audience will know nothing of his troublesome past, and those who started listening to Nigerian music when we started making ‘Afrobeats’ will know nothing of the times when he was a notorious entertainer.

From his troubles with Dammy Krane to wrapping it all up by breaking bottles on his head at Quilox, to his troublesome days on the streets of Twitter when he used to throw jabs at Linda Ikeji. He is a Surulere boy, and the ‘you can take the man out of the village’ saying keeps proving itself to be true daily.

Wizkid is no saint. He matured. He decided to become what he wanted to be. What he wanted to represent. The calm, widely successful face of African music, who is not so readily accessible, speaks only through his works and successes and almost never through drama. To a large extent, he did. He became a saint in our eyes. We came to know the serial troublemaker who called Tekno a duck in 2017 as mature.


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This mature garment made people come for him unnecessarily, as expected. Trusting in the possibility that he would not respond, numerous jabs were thrown at him from many in the industry, Particularly Davido’s camp and associates. The apple does not fall far from the tree. If everyone around you is okay saying bad things about Wizkid in public consistently, we would not be wrong to assume they do the same and more in private, and in your presence.

It’s no surprise Wiz is crashing out now. For those who say he has a reason to and that something bad happened behind the scenes, that’s not news. He has had a reason to since 2012. He has done this before, in 2017 when he called Davido a frog for the first time. Ironically, it was around this period too. This is not his first rodeo.

They say the walls have ears. I like to believe they have mouths too. The walls used to say that Wizkid’s manager Sunday Are used to be the one calling Wiz to order over the years, guiding him on how to become a better man, which would then translate into his art form. He used to make sure Wiz did not respond to the baits on social media and a core team of secure individuals was set up to protect this man from his biggest danger, himself.


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Jada, the mother of his kids and the one he has chosen to call wife became more active in his life as a manager and also stepped into the public eye. She took a lot of heat off him. His team were very secure and the weakest link was strong enough to make sure that nothing that did not need to be out was out. A working system was put in place to fine-tune that global superstar. It worked.

What changed? Why the recent drama? Why? What happened to Mr Sunday Are and the structure set in place? This rant, is it really needed? Can’t you drop music? Can’t you praise God?

Here’s my theory. The game has changed. Drastically. There can only be one reason why Wizkid and Davido are behaving like next-to-blow artists and subscribing to the album rollout tantrum package. They need it.


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When Wiz burst onto the scene, he had many things going for him. The music, his age, the ‘next king of Afrobeats’ title, his influence on trends and fashion, his appeal to women. Soon he became king, but he had lesser things going easy for him and the pressure of the game got to him.

It became all about the music. He delivered, stupendously. He surpassed. He wisely converted his influence on fashion trends into becoming a fashion icon. He sealed his name up there as one of the most appealing and stylish artists of this generation worldwide. He got the ears of the world with his music. One constant however throughout both of their careers, was the beef.

Ever since Davido came, there was always a Wizkid vs Davido conversation. The artists and their camps did amazingly well enough to fuel this narrative, and it worked immensely for both. It delivered hit songs for them, it sold records and gave them controversial moments.

They milked it. The conversation of Wizkid vs Davido was as big as the entire Afrobeats movement at that time. They were gracious enough to accommodate Burna Boy and make it a big three conversation, but it’s not like they had a choice, really.


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It was always coming. Olamide opened the possibility of a big three conversation. It should always have been a big three conversation from the start, as he burst onto the scene around the same period as these two, and is the only one that can go hit for hit with them (and even stands a chance of winning).

Tekno almost made it a big three conversation. He came the closest before Burna. Every other person always had a good year where they were as prolific as these two, like Sean Tizzle, Wande Coal, Tiwa Savage, Mr Eazi, and Runtown to mention a few, but then again, the conversation of Wizkid vs Davido was powerful enough, That’s why Davido would post a picture of him and Wizkid captioning it “ the two greatest of all time no cap” while Burna was doing amazing things round the world, because that conversation is very important.

Comparison brings conversation. Conversation brings activity, and activity provokes demand. Demand creates a market ready to be supplied. This is a gold mine for artists, you do not expect them to let the beef go easily. The biggest conversation around both of them for a while now is their beef. The Grammy moments came. The Essence. The awards and international recognition. The Made In Lagos era. The Timeless Wave. Still, the driving force behind these things is the beef.

Half of the people who listened to Made In Lagos immediately after it dropped were hate streaming. They wanted to see which album would swallow which. At the end of the day, the fans are probably the most important part of the music. And the fact that Wizkid and Davido fans are no longer fans of their music anymore but their person (in my opinion) is a double-edged sword.

FC will listen to anything from Wiz, and most likely call it great. Even if he releases an empty beat and tells his fans to imagine him on the song and whatever they imagine is what he intended, they would call him a genius. I would put money on it and bet that it would become a hit. Same with Davido. It’s even funnier with him because his fans and enemies come together to bash him on first listen but two weeks later he’s making them dance.

I feel both artists have lost the need to evolve musically. I mean, it’s hard to go harder when you are already hard enough. Their fans now share a mother-child relationship with them.

The child eats outside, from many restaurants and has definitely tasted food better than that of his mom, but he must eat the food his mom prepares when he goes home to eat. I will not be explaining that statement any further.

All I know is, that the only logical conclusion I can come to with all that is going on is that all that is going is an attempt by both artists to buy more years at the top. This is the point where we say the grace, in fellowship.
 
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