Davido: Is Buying Songs A Sin?

I’ve come to understand the first rule of the music industry.. If you are an artist, then you should write your songs. Even out of Naija, for a long time, American Disc Jockey, Funk Master Flex has ‘fed’ on taking shots at rappers. What’s always their offence? They use ghostwriters! Skrrrch! FunkFlex was born in 1968, about 20 years before Drake was born. And, he’s one of the golden age hip hop DJ’s (’80’s, ’90’s). I want to believe, as a Veteran, he knows his onions. And, yeah, the rules. So, there’s actually an unwritten rule of being the one to write your songs, if you’re a ‘good artist.’ That’s where the conversation starts from!

How many good artists do we have, down here? A handful, I guess. Infact, how many artist care if they are tagged “good” or not. At this point, the answer is, show me the money!

To start with, many people jumped into the studio because they could sing in the choir. Some other started music because they love it, regardless of whether they’re talented or not. While, at the very least, some came here to ball. They’re the rich kids who have Enough money to fund their careers, they don’t care about talent or whatever.

They just want to be in the midst of people of high calibre; celebrities.

The latter is where one of Africa’s hottest artists, Davido, falls in. When he came down here, it was straight to the music. Who cares about honing of talent, when there is money? To be honest, Davido can sing, even with his ‘frog voice’.

But everyone knows, he doesn’t really have the time to sit down, and write songs. That’s why a lot of his songs were written by other people. The most popular being 2014’s “Aye”, which was written by RunTown, in exchange for his part on “Gallardo”. His 2016 song, “Gbagbe Oshi” was bought from General Pype, for an excess of N1m.

The songwriting skills shown on “IF” can Easily be traced to Tekno, who produced it. “Pere” was from Dammy Krane. “Like That” from Teni. Only God knows how many Shizzi wrote. But, now, Nigerians are beginning to crucify him. But, why? Is any of those songs below the lyrical quality we’re looking for in our music. Do they sound ‘monotonous’ like Wizkid’s, or ‘dim-witted’ like Olamide’s ?

Later we will have to choose what we want. Maybe it’s the bad songs that were written by the performer, or good songs that were bought off.

It’s not in my mouth you’ll hear it that Rihanna also buys song. Udo!