The Influence of an Olamide collaboration and the artistes that benefited from it.
We explore how Olamide’s inclusion has influenced other artists’ breakthroughs, either directly or indirectly, highlighting the influence that a seal of approval from the king of the streets possesses.
The Nigerian music business attaches a lot of importance to the name Olamide.
It is a name that has subtly spread throughout various music-related fields (and beyond), driven by essentially the same identity and personality.
As a rising indigenous rapper who showed talent, enthusiasm, and most importantly, HUNGER, he got his start in the music business.
His big break came from his classic rap tune ‘Eni Duro; a hardcore hip-hop tune that took the streets with almost the same wave as the late Dagrin’s ‘Pon Pon’ did.
Olamide’s influence and the artists who profited from his collaboration
Phyno – Ghost Mode
Ghost Mode’, produced by the highly underrated Major Bangz, was perfect for the moment as indigenous rap was taking over the space during that period and having the East and the West join hands on a tune was the way to go.
The song, released in 2012, won the “Best Collabo” category at that year’s Headies Awards and created the start of a long-lasting friendship between the duo.
Lil Kesh – Shoki (Remix)
Unlike all the mentioned acts, Lil Kesh was actually signed to YBNL. Hence, the unlikeliness that Olamide’s influence wouldn’t play out.
After dropping two singles by himself (Lyrically & Shoki), ‘Kesh wasn’t getting the required buzz he needed until Olamide featured on the remix of the party jam ‘Shoki’, ensuring another heavyweight singer, Davido, was included in the project.
As predicted, the song, which was released in 2014, became a massive hit and, as a result, properly kick-started the career of Lil Kesh.
Ycee – Jagaban (Remix)
Having dropped a song with Patoranking titled ‘Condo’, the young and fly YCee had been getting generally good reviews as an underground rapper.
Stepping things up a notch, he followed up with a smashing hip-hop tune he titled ‘Jagaban’, produced by D’Will.
Even though the song was doing quite well, the remix with an Olamide feature, which was released in 2015, skyrocketed the movement, propelling both YCee and his music to a much-needed larger audience. YCee has gone on to release other hit songs since then.
Stormrex – Walk With Me
Another East and West collaboration released in 2015, highly talented songstress Stormex was already making moves underground before she was signed to Penthauze, which is owned by rapper Phyno (Olamide’s very close ally).
Stormrex’s soul-stirring voice made her a household name, but she was mostly known in the east.
Her feature on veteran rapper IllBliss’ ‘Naalu Ekene’ was well received.
However, just like her label boss, her popularity in Lagos, the music hub, was cemented with the Olamide feature, which propelled her further. Unfortunately, she has been missing from the music scene for a while now.
Zlatan – My Body
A breakthrough before takeoff, Zlatan Ibile, an indigenous who has equally been putting in work, concentrating on laying bars on groovy beats to cook up what is commonly called “Lamba” in Nigeria.
He got his break in 2017 after he featured Olamide on one of those lamba songs called ‘My Body’ which was the breakthrough he needed to show the newly acquired audience that he had more good music.
Zlatan later released a slew of hit songs (including an insane run in 2018 and 2019) and launch his own record label, “Zanku Records.”
Naira Marley – Issa Goal
However, when Naira released “Issa Goal,” with a Lil Kesh and Olamide feature, in 2017, it became such a monster hit that the Nigerian football team used its remix as their official song in the 2018 World Cup.
Naira Marley has gone on to become one of the biggest stars in the Nigerian music scene, churning out bangers after bangers.
He currently runs a label called “Marlian Music” that has over five amazing artistes that have flourishing music careers.
Bella Shmurda – Vision 2020
Just like most young artists that Olamide gave a big break, the young Bella Shmurda had been making moves by himself, garnering his own fanbase and attention.
Word on the street says he and Olamide were introduced to each other by dancer/hypeman Poco Lee.
The OG decided to jump on the remix of Bella Shmurda’s ‘Vision 2020′ song, released in 2019 and the rest is history.
Both versions were produced by veteran producer ID Cabasa, who co-incidentally produced Olamide’s break-out song ‘Eni Duro”.