Small Doctor: Most top songs in Nigeria are by street singers

Adekunle Temitope, Nigerian Afropop-Fuji singer better known as Small Doctor, says most top songs in the country belong to street musicians.

The 33-year-old crooner said this while speaking of the impact of his music style on the country’s music industry in a recent chat with HIP TV.

He likened street music to a treasure in the culvert, where courageous individuals only need to shoulder the task of going in there, picking them up, and showing them to the world.

According to the singer, who also questioned why not many street singers topped their categories at the 2019 Headies, street music has severally projected the Nigerian music space to the global scene more than many people realize.

“Most of the top songs out there are street songs. Today, I believe street songs are projecting the Nigerian music industry to the world. I once made this analogy: Street music is like a diamond in the gutter. Then comes a heavy rain which washes away the dirt and makes it more attractive to people,” the singer said.

“It only takes the courage of one person to go in the gutter, pick out the diamond and show it to the world. This exactly is what is happening now. This is 2019 and street music is advancing faster than you could have imagined. Street artistes deserve medals.

“They deserve Grammies all the way. Congrats to Chinko Ekun who won the ‘Best Street Hop’ award at the 2019 Headies. We could see street artistes nominated in several other categories. But why did none of them emerge? Obviously, to me, I think they’re worth it.”

Small Doctor gained widespread popularity after the release of his 2015 single ‘Mosquito Killer’, a street-pop off his ‘Street Ambassador’ album.

The singer has, ever since, put our a slew of collaborative hits including ‘Penalty’ — which won an award for the ‘Best Street Hop’ category at The Headies 2018.