‘I learned in his studio for five years’: Wizkid recalls OJB’s influence on his career

Most of the early music exposure of Ayo ‘Wizkid’ Balogun was at Silverpoint Studios, owned by the late OJB Jezreel, a veteran music producer.

In his hey days, a chunk of Nigeria’s biggest music artistes worked with OJB Jezreel in his famous studio, and Wizkid was present in most of those sessions.

In an interview on Los Angeles radio station KRRL with Bootleg Kev and DJ Damage, the Nigerian singer credits OJB for helping lay the foundation of his career in music.

The singer also talked about his collaborations with Drake and an upcoming project with Ty Dolla Sign.

On starting out and becoming fully involved in music, he said, “It was really meeting a big producer back then, OJB… When I met him, he just put me on and gave me beats.”

Wizkid said he was constantly in the studio for a year without recording a song.

He was happy to learn the craft from experienced artistes.

“I hung around the studio for a year and never recorded one song, watching stars record and just learning and waiting for my time,” Wizkid said.

The studio, he said, was his regular base for about five years. “I was about 11, 12 when I met him and was frequent there until 16.”

Wizkid also disclosed that he has a musical chemistry with American artiste, Ty Dolla Sign.

Ty and himself have put heads together on several songs, he told the DJs.

“We have almost 20 records with Ty Dolla Sign.”

His first international record ‘Sounds From The Other Side’ is slated for release in July.

The ‘Ojuelegba’ singer recently won three awards at the Billboard Music Awards.