The young pop stars are currently at loggerheads, and NET can exclusively tell you thatthe vibrant ‘Wizzy’ and ‘Omo baba olowo’ are no longer on speaking terms.
Both artistes’ camps have taken sides and are on the verge of calling out names; the tension between both artistes keeps threatening the air of peace left.
Recently Davido and his HKN label crew were reported to have walked out of the NEA Awards show while Wizkid was performing. Fans are already asking questions, the most popular one being ‘what started it all?’
The dispute between Wizkid and Davido might seem sudden to the general public, but it dates back longer than we think. The cause? You’ll have to thank two very important men in the Nigerian music industry – D’banj and Don Jazzy.
FIRST BLOOD
It all started with the news of D’banj signing Davido to his DBRecords back in May 2012 – the news turned out to be false, but this obviously didn’t go down well with the ‘other camp.’
‘You see Davido was very close to Don Jazzy and the Mo’hits squad before they parted with D’banj. When Jazzy heard Davido signed with D’banj, he wasn’t entirely happy’, a close friend of both camps tells NET.
SECOND ROUND’S ON ME
Don Jazzy is said to have immediately told Wande Coal (who mentors both Wizkid andDavido) to stop visiting Davido at his Lekki home.
Davido, at the time, was still recording his debut album andhad plans to collaborate with Wande and Wizzy on separate songs. When Davido contacted Wande Coal, the pop singer’s management asked for an exorbitant fee (reportedly N1.5m) for the collabo. Sourcessay Davido was keen to get it done, but his manager Asa Asika was having none of it. This ‘sudden policy’ led to a war of words between Asika and Wande’s manager Nana. The collabo never happened. Wande and Davido stopped talking and calling each other.
STRIKE THREE
Davido moved on to record themuch talked about duet with Wizkid. But when he sent the instrumental to the EME team, Wizkid, sources say, told them he couldn’t work with Davido on the song, saying the beat wasn’t up to standard and he didn’t want to lower his brand.Little did Davido know that it was his fight with Wande that made him (Wizkid) immediatelytake sides.
‘Wande is like Wizkid’s elder brother. Wizzy looks up to him a lot and anything Wande says, Wizkid will do. When Wande told him about what happenedbetween him and Davido, he just took sides with him straight’, says our inside source.
Davido, losing on both ends, scrapped both songs and even though it was a huge blow, he didn’t let it get him down. The disappointment is said to have inspired the first track on his album ‘All of you.’ Davido, well known for his boisterous attitude, laid it all out on the song, claiming to be better than ‘everyone’, referencing artistes such as 2face, Psquare and D’banj as his mentors, conspicuously leaving out the MAVIN and EME crew. The MAVINS seemingly responded by not attending Davido’s album launch held at the Eko Hotel and Suites
‘Davido doesn’t send Don Jazzy or them Banky W again, that’s what inspired that song, he believes they aren’t better than him and to an extent he does prove it’ said our source.
AS IT STANDS
After the Don Jazzy-D’banj split, crew members decamped and spoils were taken. While Don Jazzy took with him pop singers Wande Coal, Dr SID, andrapper D’Prince, and launched his MAVIN Records label with a surprise signing Tiwa Savage, D’banj went the other way with his younger brother Kay Switch. Other familiar friends like Naeto C, Ikechukwu, Davido, the HKN Gang and Mo’Hits hype man Special Ed readily affiliates themselves with D’banj.
