Mp3bullet.ng presents the top 10 Naija Songs that caused controversy.
Most Nigerian Artists have at one point in their life produced songs that caused a controversy though sometimes not intentional. For this list we would be looking at songs that birthed controversies or were birthed from controversies. Also, we would also be looking at songs whose music video was the source of the controversy.
In no particular order,
NAIRA MARLEY FT ZLATAN- AM I A YAHOO BOY
Naira Marley is no newcomer to controversy, as it has served as a boost to push his career forward. The controversy that surrounds him has gotten him a large fanbase which goes by the name, Marlians or No Belt Gang.
His entanglement with controversy began when he showed support for “Yahoo Yahoo” guys or Cybercriminals as the technical name goes. After he was tagged as a “Yahoo boy” by Nigerians who were displeased with his stance, Naira Marley enlisted the help of his fellow controversial friend, Zlatan to release the song, “Am I a yahoo boy?”.
Ironically, a day after he released the song, he, Zlatan, and three others were arrested by the EFCC on Zlatan’s birthday.
FALZ- THIS IS NIGERIA
Falz is seen by most people as the New Fela Kuti because of some of the songs he releases. When Falz released his version of Childish Gambino‘s “This Is America” which he titled “This is Nigeria”, he found himself on the wrong side of the Nigerian Government as his song was banned from being played on public broadcasting stations.
In the song, Falz dragged every Institution he could get his hands on, from Religious to Government, Educational, to the police force, nobody was spared from Falz’s weapon of mass destruction, Music. The video for the song caused more uproar as a popular Muslim Organization, MURIC slammed him for using women dressed in Hijab to dance.
OLAMIDE- SCIENCE STUDENT
Way before Naira Marley was crowned king of controversy, Olamide was leading the frontline. Olamide has had more than five of his songs banned by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation due to indecent and Vulgar lyrics.
When he released Science Student, his fans saw the song as a hit banger and the next big street anthem. But that didn’t last forever when some Music lovers started decoding the lyrics and accused Olamide of promoting Drug abuse with the song.
Apparently the term Science student was a name given to people who combined drug substances to get high.
Though Olamide came out on social media to explain that he was only trying to speak against drug abuse with his song, most people were not convinced.
KISS DANIEL- YEBA
When Kizz Daniel released Yeba in 2017, it was just seen as a song that was meant to be danced to. Until a fan brought people’s notice to a line in the song where a female voice say “Uncle stop touching me”
According to the fan, Kizz Daniel was promoting sexual harassment in the song by adding that line. Kizz Daniel came out to address the allegations saying,
“The song teaches our ladies to speak out against what they haven’t consented to and for the men, to realize that if a lady says No, No means No.”
DJ ENIMONEY FT SLIMCASE, TIWA SAVAGE, AND REMINISCE- DIET
This controversial song was released a few months after Olamide was slammed over his lyrics on “Science Student”. The chorus of the song, “On a codeine diet” did not sit well with people as the song was also released during the campaign against the abuse of Codeine drug which was popular among Nigerian Youths.
Tiwa Savage was slammed for even performing the song at the 2018 Headies Award show.
WIZKID- FEVER
While the “Fever” song was just a normal love song, it was the video that actually caused controversy. Wizkid used Tiwa Savage as a vixen in the music video and this fuelled the rumors that Wizkid and Tiwa Savage were dating.
Nigerians took to social media to slam the mother of one claiming that she had reduced herself by dating Wizkid who was younger than her.
ORITSE FEMI- OBEY
Just like Wizkid’s Fever, the controversy surrounding Oritse Femi‘s Obey wasn’t actually in the song but in the video. Oritse Femi was called out by Nigerians who slammed him for making use of a clip of a woman being beaten by the police. The clip was actually from a video that went viral months ago of a woman being brutalized by Nigerian police Officers.
The victim in the video took to social media to slam Oritse Femi for making a mockery of her incident with his song.
DJ KAYWISE FT OLAMIDE- SEE MARY, SEE JESUS
This song didn’t sit well with Christians who believed that Olamide who happens to be a Muslim was wrong in using the names of Mary and Jesus to sing. The song was banned by the Nigerian broadcasting corporation for casual use of the name “Mary” and “Jesus”.
9ICE- LIVING THINGS
When Falz in an interview slammed some of his colleagues in the Music Industry for using their song to hail fraudsters and promoting cyber crimes, people assumed 9ice was one of the artistes he was talking about.
9ice had at that time released a song called “Living things”. 9ice in response to Falz’s criticisms said that his song was a positive song and he was hailing people he considered to be socialites and not fraudsters.
DAVIDO- FIA
Davido was embroiled in a serious issue in late 2017 after he lost three friends to an unknown cause in the space of three days. One of them being Tagbo who was dating Nigerian actress, Caroline Danjuma. Caroline had accused Davido of having a hand in Tagbo’s death and this led to a trade of words between them.
The drama continued when Davido released “Fia” and people took notice of the “Caroline save your drama” which was interpreted as a shot at Caroline Danjuma.
Though Davido tried to write off the line with the excuse that he was referring to an old classmate of his from primary school, Nigerians were not convinced.
NAIRA MARLEY- SOAPY
Naira Marley released Soapy after his release from jail. The song was controversial because of the lyrics and the dance move. The dance caused an uproar after Nigerian youths began to release videos of them pretending to masturbate as they dance to the song
Popular dancer, Kaffy referred to the dance as disgusting which caused Naira Marley to slam her on social media.