When I came up with this opinion piece, I didn’t know how to go about it without coming across as judgmental, one-sided or insensitive. Wizkid is one artiste I’ve always had a soft spot for. The man is just so talented, you can’t ignore how good he is.
Then, there’s Davido on another hand. Hmm. Omo Baba Olowo (Son of a Rich Man). At first, I never really thought David would go far in the music industry, but then, he stunned me. 10 years in the industry! Wow! That’s no fluke. Besides Burna Boy and Wizkid, there is no African artiste that can rival the rich humble dude.
Now you see my dilemma.
Before we go any further, there’s something you need to understand about the entertainment industry—it’s the Wild West. Nobody gives a damn about love. The industry feeds off rivalry 24/7. It’s a never-ending cycle of who is beefing who, who is shading who, who is dissing who and who is better than who.
The entertainment industry is the birthplace of comparison, in fact, its headquarters. The fans pick sides and then force those sides to go at each other like a ram fight. The fans stream your music, pay for tickets, buy your albums and put money in your pocket. So, if it’s a rivalry they want, then, 100%, that’s what they are going to get. He who plays the piper does what again? Aha! Now you are starting to piece it together.
Remember the “East Coast” V “West Coast” bitter rivalry between Rap legends, Tupac Armani Shakur and Notorious BIG? You won’t relate if you are Gen-Z, but, in any case, I’ll go down memory lane. Old timers know that both Rappers were and remain the greatest Rappers God ever put on the face of the earth. Oh, my world! These two were supernatural.
What they did with their lyrics is akin to what the mafia did with their guns. The result was the same: Both climbed up to the very pinnacle. They were unstoppable. They’d have been more popular than Jesus Christ, Michael Jackson and Coke had they lived on. They were that good.
Sadly, some forces felt that two of the greatest rappers had no business being friends. They needed a rivalry and so, they forced one. Boom! Tupac conveniently gets shot while trying to gain entry to the studio BIG was recording.
Tupac survives multiple gunshots, and doesn’t care to thoroughly investigate if BIG is truly responsible, before drawing the battle line. Again Tupac is shot and, this time, dies. His goons will have their pound of flesh and, 6months later, BIG gets shot outside a club. While the highlights were their deaths, the fury in between that was crazy. The beef was astronomic and the fans lived off it—each picking a side (like I described) and going at each other.
It does appear to me that the case of Wizkid and Davido is similar. When I used the word, “forces,” in the BIG V Tupac scenario, it had deeper connotations as there were more things than met the eye.
The same applies to our dear Nigerian music stars. You see the enmity and you wonder, “What is really going on here?” Is there something these two aren’t telling us? It feels so deep; it can’t just be music beef. This feels personal and I wish I could guess their reasons so it all makes sense to me.
Like BIG and Tupac, Wizzy and Davido started out as ok friends. Of course, there weren’t paddies of life or anything like that, but, they got along well. Then, sometime after Wizkid left Banky W and EME Records, the falling out with Davido came to the fore.
David once said there was something Wizkid said while they shared a plane that made him realize “this dude doesn’t like me.” It went downhill from there. Like Prophet Odumeje, it became clearer that these weren’t men of peace: They had chosen war and it became a real indaboski between them.
Yes, they famously made up at one point in 2018 (Wizkid performing at Davido’s 30BG concert and Davido performing at Wizkid’s Eko Hotel convert on the 24th of December, 2018) but, even I knew that wasn’t going to last. Nah! True to my word, they slid back to violence and their short-lived peace evaporated into thin air.
Now, here’s where I have a problem with Wizkid. I can understand grievances and pent-up anger, but there are certain rules of engagement to every faceoff. Even in war times, there are some things soldiers ensure they observe at different times.
Take, for example, the ‘ceasefire’ they, sometimes, observe—where both sides sheathe their swords for a particular reason. Despite being warriors, there are some dos and don’ts that must be observed.
Thus, it came as a surprise that, when Davido married Chioma earlier this year and the whole world was celebrating the “wedding of the century,” Wizkid chose that ill-timed moment to shade and mock Davido. I found his social media mockery, at a point when David was celebrating, to be childish and unnecessary.
Fast-forward to recent times and Wizkid is at it again. Only last week, a barrage of disgusting tweets and social media posts clearly aimed at Davido began rolling out. From calling Davido a “talentless” singer to claiming he is “flier” than Davido and has a better fashion sense.
Where did this anger come from? Again, I have to ask: Is there something Davido is doing to Wizkid in secret that has him all sore and bitter towards OBO? That can be the only logical reason for these tantrums.
What made those harsh remarks and mockery from Wizkid even more childish was the fact that the intended target, Davido, is still yet to reply or even dignify it with a response. Davido’s odd silence gives rise to the old saying, “silence is the best answer for a fool.”
By keeping mute and carrying on with his business unperturbed, Davido is casting an image of a ‘bigger man,’ thus, making Wizkid look like an unruly kid. The dynamics of this battle aren’t casting a good light on Wizkid and make it even more foolhardy to have been started in the first place.
My take is that this is a mid-life crisis thing. When you get into your mid and late 30s, a lot of people suffer this crisis. You start acting out, doing irrational stuff and throwing tantrums until later on when you get past that storm and weather it.
It’s a crazy place to be and I think that’s exactly what Wizkid is experiencing right now. I just hope he gets over this phase and goes back to churning out good music.
Come to think of it, it has been quite a while since he delivered premium music.
That, in my opinion, should take centre stage, not some needless beef with Davido that isn’t even being reciprocated. It’s just my two cents anyway.
