Senegalese-American singer, Akon has revealed that he was instrumental in the career success of Nigerian Grammy award-winning singer Wizkid.
He claimed that the Starboy crooner was just a local musician before he signed him to his record label in 2008 and polished him up.
Speaking in a recent episode of the Bagfuel Brigade podcast, Akon also claimed that Afrobeats wouldn’t have been what it is today without him developing some artists in Nigeria and opening bigger markets for them in the late 2000s to 2010s.
“In 2008, I spent my time in Nigeria developing what you see today as Afrobeats. And all of them can attest to it,” he said.
Wizkid was the first [Nigerian] artist we signed officially at that time. And then we went on to sign a group called P-Square, which was the first [Nigerian] group that made it internationally.
ALSO READ: Iyanya Denies Taking Sides In Beef Between Davido and Wizkid
Wizkid was just the local Nigerian star before we touched him and it opened up to a bigger market. I wouldn’t want to take credit for all of it but I can tell you that if we didn’t do what we did, Afrobeats would still have been in the same position it was when we got there [Nigeria in 2008]. That I can tell you 100 per cent.
I brought the business side of music to Afrobeats because all they [Nigerian artists at that time] knew about was the creative [side of music]. There was no business, no infrastructure, none of it attached to it.”
Afrobeats artist, Iyanya, has reacted to accusations of picking a side in the feud between afrobeats stars, Wizkid and Davido.
Wizkid and Davido reignited their age-old beef with messy social media fights last year.
Iyanya, who collaborated with Wizkid on his hit track, ‘Sexy Mama,’ earlier in his career, has been recently accused of switching sides on the Starboy boss following his public show of support for Davido’s music.
On Wednesday, an X user @Akubasteeny made the accusation again when he wrote under a post by the singer,
“I thought Wiz was your friend. I am just wondering why you switched side and turn into Davido’s boy.”
Reacting, Iyanya explained that he doesn’t have issues with any of their colleagues, stressing that he supports Wizkid the same way he supports other artists.
