Akon, the Senegalese-American singer, has described Wizkid as the “poster child for Afrobeats”.
Akon gave his opinion about the outset of Nigeria’s Afropop biggest trio — Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido — in a recent interview with Sway Calloway, the US radio personality.
The music executive, who was asked to speak about Afropop’s emergence in the global spotlight, touched on the impact of Konvict, his music empire, and how his influence rubbed off on the music genre.
Akon also disclosed that Davido once tried out rap.
He added that the ‘OBO’ crooner is the “hardest working artiste” who was initially seen as an underdog.
He described Wizkid as a “born star” while equally commending Burna Boy’s success streaks over the years.
“I’m super happy about [all the stories being told]. What was even more interesting was that, around that time when we were pushing the third record, Davido was in Atlanta trying to be a rapper,” he said.
"Burna Boy is a beast. Wizkid is just a superstar. Davido is the hardest working artiste because he was the underdog. Mr Eazi is intelligent, he is more of a businessman to me than an artiste"
– Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam pic.twitter.com/f6TCrIJ47X
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“I said if you don’t take your ass back to Africa and do that music. That’s what we need to be doing. Going to Africa.
“I’m loving how Burna Boy is moving right now. Burna is killing it. He’s being moved around by a guy named Kirk Hardy who usee to be the head of international for Konvict. He literally gave Burna the Akon blueprint.
“Burna boy is a beast. He’s killing it. Wizkid is just a superstar. He’s one of those guys who would put out one record a year and that record last a whole year. He was born a star.
“Davido is like the hardest working artiste because he was the underdog back then.
“He had a wealthy family, so he was able to come up with a new song and a new video every week. He just kept coming. He’ll beat you with quantity versus quality.”
On Wizkid, Akon said “he is probably the poster child for Afrobeats Music. We knew he was going to be that way when we discovered him. We picked up Wizkid in 2010…. at the time he was a real kid. He was 14, like super young.”
"Wizkid is probably the poster child of Afrobeats. We knew he was going to be that when we discovered him"
– Akon pic.twitter.com/MpICoqqmbk
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This is not the first time Akon would use Wizkid as a case study while speaking about Afropop in his interviews.
In 2019, Akon claimed music contracts don’t exist in Africa.
“All you need is just to shake hands for a deal to be struck,” the music executive had argued.
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