The Power of an Olamide Feature & 11 Artists that Benefitted | READ

We take a look at how Olamide’s feature has influenced different artists’ break-outs, directly or indirectly, citing the power that a co-sign from the king of the streets holds.

• By Ademola Bashorun

Top 11 Olamide Features in the Nigeria Music Scene.

The name Olamide is of great significance to the Nigerian music industry. It is a name that has gradually watered itself across different spheres of the music scene (and beyond), propelled by almost the same identity and personality.

From having his break in the music industry as a budding indigenous rapper who showed talent, passion, and more importantly, HUNGER. His big break came from his classic rap tune ‘Eni Duro; a hardcore hip-hop tune that took the streets with almost the same wave as the late Dagrin’s ‘Pon Pon’ did.

After the much-needed break-out, Baddo, as he is known, has evolved so much that he can be tagged as a rapper, singer, and songwriter with no flinch. He has honed them so much that he balances singing, rapping, and songwriting at a top-notch level.

Having come into the industry with a personality that was cemented as a “proper street boy”, his street credibility continued to rise because of his intelligence and his ability to avoid public controversies without entertaining any form of disrespect. This is why his “OG” status is inevitably unquestionable.

Olamide comes across as the big brother that plays with you, but you still won’t dare disrespect him.

Year after year of consistently churning out hit records and quality projects (over 10-studio albums so far), he further established himself as a powerful artist, the type of artist who could make an “ajebutter” love the “street”.

His passion, hard work and commitment helped him rise so high that he became a rapper who had more hits than most singers, and a SOLID FACT is that Olamide, since 2011, has always had at least ONE HIT song per year till date.

As an artist who hasn’t been signed to a record label for a while, because he floated his own record label tagged YBNL (Yahoo Boy, No Laptop) in 2012, it was obvious Olamide was going to build his career on his own terms, and one of those terms included working with new artistes, a culture he cultivates till this day.

Having singed/co-signed over ten acts (although some were controversial) in his lifetime, Olamide’s influence in breaking a lot of Nigerian acts cannot be undermined because the records resulted in a win for these artistes. Just by being Baddo, he made known acts like Viktoh, Lil Kesh, Adekunle Gold, Chinko Ekun, Zlatan, Naira Marley, Picasso, Lyta, Davolee, the late Olanrewaju Pele Pele, Temmie Ovwasa, DJ Enimoney, Pheelz, Fireboy DML, and a host of others.

The Super Hero Baddo wasn’t just a blessing to acts that were directly signed to him, as his influence and talent also paved the way for a lot of artists who were lucky to have had him on a song.

The list below will be taking a look at 11 artists (in no particular order) whose careers have benefited from a Baddo Feature.

11. Phyno – Ghost Mode

Possibly the biggest career influence on the list, Phyno, who started off as a producer, has already introduced himself to the industry with the remix of his song ‘Multiply’ which featured heavyweights like Flavour, Timaya, M.I, and RAW. However, he still wasn’t buzzing that much until he featured Olamide on “Ghost Mode,” a heavyweight hip-hop tune that properly introduced Phyno to the western part of Nigeria, which is generally regarded as the music hub of the country.

‘Ghost Mode’, produced by the highly underrated Major Bangz, was perfect for the moment as indigenous rap was taking over the space during that period and having the East and the West join hands on a tune was the way to go. The song, released in 2012, won the “Best Collabo” category at that year’s Headies Awards and created the start of a long-lasting friendship between the duo.

10. Lil Kesh – Shoki (Remix)

Unlike all the mentioned acts, Lil Kesh was actually signed to YBNL. Hence, the unlikeliness that Olamide’s influence wouldn’t to play out. After dropping two singles by himself (Lyrically & Shoki), ‘Kesh wasn’t getting the required buzz he needed until Olamide featured on the remix of the party jam ‘Shoki’, ensuring another heavyweight singer, Davido, was included in the project. As predicted, the song, which was released in 2014, became a massive hit and, as a result, properly kick-started the career of Lil Kesh.

9. Ycee – Jagaban (Remix)

Having dropped a song with Patoranking titled ‘Condo’, the young and fly YCee had been getting generally good reviews as an underground rapper. Stepping thing up a notch, he followed up with a smashing hip-hop tune he titled ‘Jagaban’, produced by D’Will. Even though the song was doing quite well, the remix with an Olamide feature, which was released in 2015, skyrocketed the movement, propelling both YCee and his music to a much needed larger audience. YCee has gone on to release other hit songs since then.

8. Stormrex – Walk With Me

Another East and West collaboration released in 2015, highly talented songstress Stormex was already making moves underground before she was signed to Penthauze, which is owned by rapper Phyno (Olamide’s very close ally). Stormrex’s soul-stirring voice made her a household name, but she was mostly known in the east. Her feature on veteran rapper IllBliss’ ‘Naalu Ekene’ was well received. However, just like her label boss, her popularity in Lagos, the music hub, was cemented with the Olamide feature, which propelled her further. Unfortunately, she has been missing from the music scene for a while now.

7. Zlatan – My Body

A breakthrough before takeoff, Zlatan Ibile, an indigenous who has equally been putting in work, concentrating on laying bars on groovy beats to cook up what is commonly called “Lamba” in Nigeria. He got his break in 2017 after he featured Olamide on one of those lamba songs called ‘My Body’ which was the breakthrough he needed to show the newly acquired audience that he had more good music. Zlatan later released a slew of hit songs (including an insane run in 2018 and 2019) and launch his own record label, “Zanku Records.”

6. Naira Marley – Issa Goal

Another major career influence on this list, the UK-based Naira Marley, was trying to break into the Nigerian music scene, trying to transform himself from the hip-hop rapper he dominantly was to a street-hop act, which remains one of the mainstream genres in Nigeria.

Naira Marley’s first major attempt was with ‘Kosi Weyrey’ which featured Olamide, but the record was not a certified hit even though the Olamide factor pushed it to a point. However, when Naira released “Issa Goal,” with a Lil Kesh and Olamide feature, in 2017, it became such a monster hit that the Nigerian football team used its remix as their official song at the 2018 World Cup.

Naira Marley has gone on to become one of the biggest stars in the Nigerian music scene, churning out bangers after bangers. He currently runs a label called “Marlian Music” that has over five amazing artistes that have flourishing music careers.

5. Bella Shurmda –Vision 2020 (remix)

Just like most young artists that Olamide gave a big break, the young Bella Shmurda had been making moves by himself, garnering his own fanbase and attention. Word on the street says he and Olamide were introduced to each other by dancer/hypeman Poco Lee. The OG decided to jump on the remix of Bella Shmurda’s ‘Vision 2020′ song, released in 2019 and the rest is history. Both versions were produced by veteran producer ID Cabasa, who co-incidentally produced Olamide’s break-out song ‘Eni Duro”.

In several interviews, Bella Shmurda revealed that Olamide also sponsored the video for the remix, a move that saw the break of one of the most promising street-hop stars Nigeria currently boasts.

4. Jaido P – Tesinapot

A story of grass to grace, people. The song ‘Tesinapot’ might have been overlooked if not for the Baddo effect, which sealed the fact that Jaido P was another great act that needed a major push to make things work. Released in 2020, the song became a hit even though it was released during the pandemic year.

3. Poco Lee x Portable – ZaZoo Zehh

Another day at the office, General Baddo discovers a random artist, Portable from the “streets” who needed help, and Olamide didn’t hesitate. In this scenario, there was an original version, but Olamide spiced things up by ensuring teenage ace producer P-Prime produced the ZaZoo Zehh remix. His verse was sleek and, as expected, the PR of having Olamide on a song did the job, making it arguably the biggest songs that rocked 2021’s December.

2. T.I Blaze – Sometime (Remix)

We are five days into 2022 and Olamide has already given the world a new act to watch out for. A one-minute preview on Olamide’s Instagram page of the unreleased remix of this song was all that was needed to give underground Afro-fusion act T.I. Blaze the attention he needed. With the remix unreleased, the original song saw a major streaming boost, and after the remix dropped, it garnered over 500k streams across all music platforms in 24hrs. Only one General Baddo!.

1. Asake – Omo Ope

Asake who is the hottest new act in the Nigerian scene right now got his big break after a baddo-assisted song ‘Omo Ope’, the song was followed by a signing to Olamide’s label YBNL and that had birth to one of the craziest runs in Nigerian music history as the afro-fusion has gone on tp church out no less than five hits in the space of six months. Once again, the Olamide factor!.