The Origin of Wizkid
Wizkid at birth was named Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun and was born in Surulere, Lagos, on July 16.1990. his early childhood was spent being raised in a multi-faith family with twelve siblings who were all females. His father practices Islam, and his mother is a Pentecostal Christian woman. Ayodeji, more commonly known as Wizkid, attended Ijebu Ode Grammar School in Ijebu Ode, Nigeria.
While growing up, Wizkid was raised listening to the music of King Sunny Ade, Fela Kuti, and Bob Marley. He revealed “My father has three wives” during a radio interview in 2012. He also said that he founded the Glorious Five with a group of his friends from church.
Wizkid was formerly known as Lil Prinz; He formed the Glorius Five when he was only 11 years with four friends from his church. They released one album before disbanding, which sold close to 10.000 copies in their native country of Nigeria. This sparked a desire within Wizkid to be successful as a music artist.
First Steps Into The Music Industry
However, when he met OJB Jezreel, a record producer, they stopped Wizkid’s progress by preventing him from recording for over a year. Wizkid saw 2 Face Idibia record tracks for his Grass 2 Grace album while frequenting OJB’s Point Beat studios, where he also witnessed the recording sessions of Sound Sultan’s debut album called Jagbanjantis.
He mentioned that Nieto C was one of his biggest mentors and coach who helped him when he was 15 to become the star he is today. This is where he co-wrote “Omoge You Too Much”, a song, with Bandy W.’s The W Experience album.
He then dropped out of the undergraduate degree he was attending at Lagos State University in mid-2009. After this, he enrolled at Lead City University but left after completing two semesters. This was also when he started working on his debut studio album, Superstar.
Wizkid Stepping Up His Music Game
On 2nd January 2010, Wizkid released “Holla at Your Boy”, which was his albums lead single. For this, he won the Next Rated Award at the Headies 2011 for being the best pop single. Later on, in 2012 at the Nigeria Entertainment Awards, Wizkids’s album Superstar won the Best Album of the Year award and was nominated for the same at the Headies 2012. To listen to some of Wizkids best works, simply download the best Wizkid songs from a trusted source online.
In 2012, Wizkid came to London and toured the city, performing at sold-out concerts throughout London. In June, he performed at the HMV Apollo. During the development of E.M.E’s compilation album, which was called “The Empire Mates State of Mind,”. he collaborated with some of the most prominent names in the industry like Niyola, Shaydee, Skales, and Banky W.
After the release of this album, E.M.E artists toured the United States and Canada. The tour began in July 2012 and concluded in September 2012. Wizkid, along with other E.M.E artists, performed on some of the most sought after stages and venues in cities like Houston, New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, and many more.
Wizkid performed alongside some of the greats in the rap industry, such as Kendrick Lamar, Trey Songz, Tulisa, and Angel, at the BBC Radio 1Xtra Live 02 Academy in Brixton on 12th November in 2012.
Wizkid’s Impact on Social Media
Wizkid became the first Nigerian rapper to reach a million followers Twitter followers in February 2014. Wizkid, by then, had become an icon in his country and was loved by the people, especially the youth who followed his music religiously.
He was invited to the Beat 99.9 FM studio’s show, which was then hosted by Toolz; this is where he revealed that he was working with a famous Barbadian singer Rihanna. Tinnie Tempah, another prominent name in the music industry, invited Wizkid to perform as a special guest on his UK tour in 2014.
In January of 2015, Wizkid released the music video for the song “Ojuelegba” this was based on his singing career and especially reflected the struggles he faced on his rise to fame. Drake and Skepta featured in the official remix of this song by contributing vocals which premiered on OVO Sound Radio.
During a visit to London in October 2014, Wizkid revealed that he is planning a new album which was released in the same year; in collaboration with Chris Brown, “ African Bad Gyal” became the lead song off his upcoming third studio album. During Chris Brown’s concerts in Durban, South Africa, in April 2015, Wizkid and Brown performed African Bad Gyal. If you want to hear some of Wizkid’s best works, just go online and download Wizkid best songs from an authentic source.
Wizkid’s Making His Mark on Music History
Drake, ever the trailblazer, was the first to introduce Wizkid to Western audiences when he approached him for a feature on his smash hit” One Dance” The song is considered among the most influential songs of the last decade. It paved the path for Afrobeats to break into mainstream pop music. Wizkid was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for releasing One Dance which was the most streamed song on Spotify.
Wizkid has a childhood filled with struggles, but he worked hard to make it to the big leagues and earn the respect of some of the most iconic entities in the music industry.