28/08/2024
Olamide is the silent ā4th Horsemanā of Afrobeats. Rema may harbour thoughts of joining the BIG 4 but the 4th position is not vacant. Olamide has occupied that position and for over a decade has made invaluable contributions to the genre.
For starters, Olamide gave your favourite Big 3 major hits even before they started popping. In 2011, he featured Wizkid in āOmo to Shanā. In 2012, he featured a relatively new Davido on āPanumoā and in 2016 featured Burna Boy on āOmo Wobe Anthemā.
Olamide also gave Afrobeats some of its superstars via YBNL. The first generation included acts like Adekunle Gold, Lil Kesh, Viktoh, Chinko Ekun. The second generation launched stars like Fireboy DML and Asake.
There is a separate generation - former YBNL producers who have become superstar artistes in their own right - Pheelz and Young Jonn.
This is not to mention artistes not signed to YBNL that Olamide helped launch their careers with a feature: Zlatan Ibile in 2017 with āMy Bodyā, Bella Shmurda in 2019 with āVision 2020ā, Portable with āZazoo Zehhā in 2021 and TI Blaze with āSometimesā in 2022.
Talking about consistency and longevity, no Afrobeats artiste has been more consistent than Baddo. Since he dropped his first album āRapsodiā in 2011, Olamide has dropped 12 projects in 13 years, averaging almost a project per year. These projects have contained viral hits like āFirst of Allā, street anthems like āGoons Miā, dance sensations like āBoboā or enduring love songs like āRockā, āMelo Meloā and āInfinityā.
His hard work, despite being underrated in some quarters, has not gone unrewarded. He is the most streamed African rapper with almost 800m Spotify streams. He has won the most Headies awards in history (15) and is the first Nigerian rapper to be nominated for a Grammy.
Olamide has evolved with the times, his sound and penmanship aging like fine wine. He has gifted other artistes hit songs and he has gradually taken singing and rapping in Yoruba global without switching
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