Akon, a singer of Senegalese-American descent, has disclosed that he was instrumental in the career success of Nigerian international Afrobeats star Wizkid.
He asserted that before he signed the Starboy crooner to his record label in 2008 and polished him up, he was merely a local musician.
Akon, in a recent episode of the Bagfuel Brigade podcast, asserted that Afrobeats would not have reached its current state without his efforts to develop artists in Nigeria and expand their markets from the late 2000s to the 2010s.
I dedicated my time in Nigeria in 2008 to developing what is now known as Afrobeats. „Und alle von ihnen können dies bestätigen“, sagte er.
„Damals war Wizkid der erste [nigerianische] Künstler, den wir offiziell unter Vertrag nahmen. We then signed a group called P-Square, which was the first [Nigerian] group to achieve international success.
Before we worked with Wizkid, he was merely a local Nigerian star. Our involvement opened him up to a larger market. I don’t want to claim all the credit, but I can say that without our efforts, Afrobeats would have remained in the same position it was in when we arrived [in Nigeria in 2008]. I can assure you of that with absolute certainty.
Since all they [Nigerian artists at that time] knew about was the creative [side of music], I introduced the business aspect of music to Afrobeats. There were no businesses, no infrastructure, none of it associated with it.
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