Shallipopi: Chinese movie ‘Shaolin Popey’ inspired my stage name

Shallipopi, the Nigerian singer, says ‘Shaolin Popey‘, a 1994 Chinese movie, inspired his stage name.

The ‘Ex-Convict’ hitmaker spoke about the concept behind his moniker on the recent episode of the Cocktails and Takeaway podcast.

Shallipopi said he had been struggling to find a stage name for a while and even tried using his real name but it did not work out.

The 23-year-old revealed that he finally got the breakthrough when his mother bought a cartoon CD. He said when they played the CD, it turned out to be the ‘Shaolin Popey’ movie.

He also revealed that he took the “first three letters” from the two words that formed the movie’s name to get his stage name.

“When we were little, you know all these CDs that were sold, all those Tom and Jerry CDs, our parents used to buy something like that for us,” he said.

“Some of the cassettes that you would buy, you would not see the movie that you bought inside, you would see another movie. We call them fake movies.

“So there was one that my mother bought, I think it was supposed to be a cartoon but when we put the cassette inside, the name was Shaolin Popey. It was an old Chinese soccer movie.

“I was looking for names, I checked this and that, but it did not work. I even tried my own name but when I told somebody that this was my name, they were not feeling it.

“You know the movie name is two words, so I took the first three letters from the two words and added them together. ”

Shallipopi rose to fame after releasing his first single titled ‘Elon Musk’.

On October 17, Shallipopi launched Plutomania Records, his record label. He also signed Tega Boi and Zerrydl on the same day.