A hit song is the dream of all recording Artistes and musicians worldwide and a hit song with a lot of covers is icing on the cake. More popularity, more market penetration and more publicity for the artiste and their brand. We take a look at the Top Five Nigerian songs that revolutionized music Covers in Nigeria. These five songs are the songs that had the most impact as regards song covers in the Nigerian music industry in the last decade.
5) Skibii That’s How Stars Do – Former Five stars Act and the CEO of More Grace Records, Skibii Mayana followed up his first Major Hit “Sensima” with the Single “Dats How Stars Do” featuring Teni, DJ Neptune and Falz. The Song was well received by music listeners across the country and soon covers started dropping too. Harrysong, Ice Prince, Vector and many more artistes jumped on the trend and it soon became a viral sensation on the internet.
4) Mayorkun Geng – Mayorkun’s Geng started off as a freestyle in the Studio. The Quebeats Produced Track was Mayorkun’s first attempt at making the UK/Grime type of music. On the song, he talks about a relatable topic of social status with hilarious and witty lines, describing the various affiliations youths have decided to be identified with in the present day Nigeria.
The song became a viral sensation and was the first monster hit of 2020 in Nigeria. It was so big Mayorkun had to drop a Geng remix EP that consisted of Geng remix Africa, Geng remix Nigeria and Geng remix UK. The song also landed Mayorkun a Stanbic Bank Ad. Rappers like Vector, MI, Ycee, Sinzu, Falz and many others participated in the Geng cover trend.
3) Olamide Who You Epp – Like Mayorkun’s Geng, Olamide Who you EPP was also a freestyle track that was produced and recorded within 30 mins by veteran producer, Shizzi. The song was released by Olamide with the intention of other artistes jumping on the song and a space for at least 16 bars was left on the track to be utilized by artistes across the country.
Head of Notjustok, Ovie O stated during the Who you EPP challenge facilitated by him on Notjustok that over 1000 entries from artistes across Nigeria and Africa were received. The song soon became a hit with covers from the likes of Chinko Ekun, Phyno, Sinzu, Wande Coal , Pelepele, Lil kesh, Ayo Jay, Reminsice, among others .
2) Ice Prince Oleku – Oleku was the song that changed ice prince ‘s Life and made his account go from low to Apex and to become fat and shapeless. Off the “Everybody Loves Ice Prince” album, Oleku features Brymo and was produced by JesseJagz. The song became an instant hit birthing a lot of covers and solidifying the position of rappers in contemporary Nigerian music industry.
Covers from Vector and Yung6ix became Smash Hits that was instrumental to their careers, Tekno ‘s Onyenekwu cover of the song got him a record deal, Sarkodie and Mugeez of R2bees also did covers likewise Victoria kimani of Kenya. The song is rated as one of the biggest rap songs ever released from Nigeria.
1) Kizz Daniel Fvck You – Following the release of his Sophomore album “No Bad Songz” under Flyboy Inc, Oluwatobiloba Daniel Anidugbe a.k.a Kizz Daniel released the Young John produced “Fvck You” track which was centered around a cheating girlfriend and her activities.
Capitalizing on the storyline, Kizzdaniel created a challenge for artistes to bear their minds around the same story of infidelity and tagged it the “fvckyouchallenge “. Label mates then, Lk Kuddy and Demmie Vee quickly released their own versions and then Young John also followed with his own version.
Drawing strength from it’s relatable premise of love, relationships and infidelity, “The Fvck You” challenge started spreading like wild fire. Sound Sultan, Rugged man, Pasuma, Qdot, Alao Malakia, Tiwasavage, Yemi Alade, Lil Kesh, Dremo, Falz, Vector, Sinzu, Simi, Chinko Ekun, Reminisce , MI Abaga, Kranium, Wyclef, Ladi Poe, Tobi Grey, Eva Alordiah, Sarkodie, Buswiswa and tons of artistes jumped on the trend. Comedians like Bovi, Basketmouth, Ay, Buchi and a host of others also joined on the trend. Not forgetting DJs like DJ Spinall. Even the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El Rufai made a comical freestyle on the song.
Artistes from China, Germany, UK, America, Austria and so many other European countries were not left out. The song was twisted and refined to fit into various topics like hypocrisy, police brutality, gender inequality among others, and despite the fact that it did not enjoy radio play and never had a video, it was the number one song in the country for weeks.
Each cover generated controversies like Simi cover where she was criticized for body shaming someone, Vector’s controversial plot twist, Sound Sultan call for revolution and Ruggedman’s Awakening call as to police brutality.
Kizz Daniel Fvck You remains the only song in the history of contemporary Nigeria music industry that has covers from Comedians, OAPs, Rappers, Fuji Artistes, Gospel Artistes, Politicians, normal fun loving fans and tons of upcoming Artistes worldwide and as such is our number one song on the list. Even though Kizz Daniel teased an official Fvck You Naija Remix and international remix, it was never released.
Notable mentions
Kizz Daniel – Woju
Davido – Aye
Dbanj Oliver – Twist
Mayorkun Hustlers – Anthem