Senegalese-born hip-hop star, Akon has said that he was instrumental to Wizkid’s international stardom.
Wizkid is a Nigerian international Afrobeats singer.
He maintained that the Ojuelegba crooner was operating at local level before he signed him to his record label in 2008 and refined his talent.
In a chat during a Bagfuel Brigade podcast, Akon acknowledged that Afrobeats wouldn’t have gained global acceptance without him grooming some artists in Nigeria.
“In 2008, I spent my time in Nigeria developing what you see today as Afrobeats. And all of them can attest to it,” he said.
“Wizkid was the first [Nigerian] artist we signed officially at that time. And then we went on to sign a group called P-Square, which was the first [Nigerian] group that made it internationally.
“Wizkid was just the local Nigerian star before we touched him and it opened up to a bigger market. I wouldn’t want to take credit for all of it but I can tell you that if we didn’t do what we did, Afrobeats would still have been in the same position it was when we got there [Nigeria in 2008]. That I can tell you 100 per cent.
“I brought the business side of music to Afrobeats because all they [Nigerian artists at that time] knew about was the creative [side of music]. There was no business, no infrastructure, none of it attached to it.”
