Why Davido is Unarguably the most hardworking and evolved Nigerian artist

David Adedeji Adeleke. We can all agree he needs no further introduction, yeah? Well, let me add he’s 27, a song writer, producer, music tycoon and philanthropist. OBO as he’s preferably called, which is an acronym for Omo Baba Olowo and means the son of a wealthy man. His career is as good as it can get for a Nigerian/African artist.
 
I wrote this article back in 2017 and so much has happened in the last three years I needed to update it. With the current winning streak for Davido, a person might have to be updating on a monthly basis.
   
Davido made a dive into the Nigerian music industry back in 2011 with “back when” featuring Naeto C. It was his first official single on HKN label which is Co owned by his brother Adewale Adeleke. Even though ‘Back when’ received massive airplay on our radio and TV channels, it didn’t really do the job of driving Davido into our hearts and it was just one of those regular songs we come across everyday. Subsequently, he came with the massive hit “Dami Duro.” This one was officially the introduction of the davido brand for me, though I’m still one of those who doubted his ability to last a while in the industry and thought he’s the usual one hit wonders that come take a bite and leave. Dami duro was pretty much jumpy, playful lyrical content and a bragging right display. Well I’m glad he proved me wrong. At this point Dami duro was everywhere and his Omo Baba Olowo catch phrase was in everybody’s mouth. It created so much buzz and many Showbiz critics/analysts rested the success of dami duro to his privileged background. If you’re still of the opinion that davido solely owes the success of his music career to his family’s financial buoyancy, then you need to have a rethink. 
 
While caught up in the hype of dami duro he threw another jibe at us with “Ekuro” and a visuals for it in the US (Immediate visuals for all his songs always gives him an edge) and this is precisely where he got my attention. Firstly for the fact that it was a total different thing from his previous release, I could connect and relate to the song even though I barely understand yoruba, the lyrical structure, how they were laced into the beat and the effort to do more on the vocals just shows you he’s gone back to his drawing board to reassess and improve his content. Within a short period, he released ‘Overseas’featuring shina Rambo with immediate visuals alongside. He topped it with ‘Gbon Gbon’, ‘All of yo’ and ‘Feel Alright.’ I’m pretty much excited about ‘All of you’ amongst the last mentioned songs. It had this slow aggressive vibe to it and how the last syllables of every bar he drops punch right on the Instrumental’s hard kick. The space between DamiDuro and All of you was barely a year and you can obviously point out countless improvements in every aspect of music composition involved in his genre.
 
At this point it was getting clear he has come to stay and defied every odd that might have possibly played him out or restrict him from thriving. He Went ahead to release his debut Album Omo Baba Olowo (we all would have guessed the title) comprising of all the previous mentioned songs and few more additions to sum it all up. Akon subsequently jumped on Damiduro and gave him a remix. He then started creating a Niche for himself and gradually stepping up to be a household name in the industry and obviously being a threat to some industry heavyweights.
 
He ushered us into 2013 with “Gobe” and it’s needless to explain how big of a song Gobe is and how it turned a very popular slang amongst Nigerian youths. In the span of two years, 2013-2015, he released Gobe, One of a kind, Skelewu, Aye, Tchelete, Naughty, Owo ni koko, The sound, The money. Sigh! These songs are part of songs that held the industry down within those years. One of a kind was truly one of a kind and an experimenting style for Davido. It is a bit jumpy but quite thematic and very danceable.
 
Skelewu! Skelewu! Skelewu! It had its controversies about the origin of the dance but it thrived regardless. Skelewu blew up in few days, without a video, the dance competition put up by davido on Skelewu for a set amount, just blew it up in more folds. Skelewu is probably the only non remixed Nigerian solo song with two videos. The first was shot by Sesan in Nigeria which contained more of the dance for me but non satisfactory visuals and there were no hard feelings obviously as Sesan shot videos for him subsequently. He decided to team up with Moe Musa once more in the UK for another Skelewu video installment. This time the picture was crisp clear, nice location, storyline but less of the dance which is what we were majorly looking out for but it banged anyway. ‘Aye’ then came through, and I was like Yo! Skelewu was still banging and running charts when he threw Aye, many people were still working on a choreography routine towards the competition and this man just churned out a new hit caring less. It was clear evidence of how hungry and hard he’s been working. Now let’s look at what “Aye” fed us. Davido just showed us he’s not scared to jump In and out of different genres and give the best at it. Aye is an Afro Rnb/ pop, slow paced but danceable, the lyrics were very catchy and resonated with the typical Nigerian music lover. “She no wantFerrari, she no want Versace, she say na My love o.” Davido has definitely got a way of creating a buzz out of his playful lyrics. The Visuals for Aye was another phase of Davido going out of his comfort zone. He played a village farm boy in love and aside the story, you could see clear happiness in his portrayal of the character unlike some artists who still let their real personality cloud a one minute character in a music video. Tchelete came through featuring Mafikizolo, which at that point was more or less a combo of Nigeria’s and South Africa’s best. He was the MAMA artist of the year at that point, so he was basically ruling Africa’s music scene. Tcheleteruled multiple charts for many weeks as well. “Naughty” with Dj Arafat was released and ASAP“the sound” featuring Uhuru and Dj bucks. Do you see what he’s done with these three last songs? Putting on Africa’s heavyweights. He scribbled through various parts of Africa. The sound was very massive and it dominated the charts for quite awhile. At the end of 2015, he closed with “The money” featuring Olamide baddo. This song was also Davidobeing Davido, flaunting the cash, luxury and bragging rights. It surely did figures on digital sales and the charts. 
 
Davido took a long break after “The money” ftOlamide, but before we move, I’d like to outlinefeatures he’s gotten from other artists and how every song he touches turns gold, either original or a remix. I recall his first major feature to be ‘Carolina’ by Saucekid Sinzu. He produced the song and took the chorus. Carolina was an anthem in the streets and parties. He got featured on LKT’s ‘Alaye’ and I can say without doubt, that’s LKT’s biggest song till date. He got featured on Sheyman’s ‘Paper’ which was a regular song before the remix with Davido. Reminisce Ibile! Put him on ‘L’owo daddy” and Reminisce had himself a monster banger there with Davido on the chorus. Lil Kesh decided to put him on for ‘Shoki’ remix. He self acclaimed to make shoki blow up and that’s the truth since the original featured Olamide and did barely half the remix did in terms of airplay and gigs. Vector had him on Omomummy. Diamond Platinumz, all the way from Tanzania had the song ‘Number one’ for a while and decided to get Davido on the remix. Gallardo was a game changer for the Runtown as it officially opened him to the Nigerian mainstream audience and Davidois half the strength in the creation of the song. Diamond has grown his numbers, career, fame and influence since the year of the the Number one remix. The remix literally shot him to the world and gained him mass appeal. There is Osinachi by Humblesmith. You can verify all my previous feature facts with this one. Humblesmith intended to get Davido for the original song but Davido’s schedule made it impossible and he decided to put Phyno on. The song was beautiful, Phyno did a wonderful job but it was just a regular song you just listen to once or even skip through till early 2016 Davido called up Humblesmith to schedule a remix since he’s less busy and a video followed simultaneously. It’s safe to say that Osinachi REMIX is humblesmith’s biggest song till date and we all know who he owes it to after God. There’s ‘Bahd Baddo Baddest’ with Falz and Olamide, One ticket with Kizz Daniels which is one of the biggest songs he’s ever made. He practically infused himself into Monalisa by Lyta for the remix and handled the video shoot.
He hopped on international collaborations as a guest artist on songs like, Lower body off the Indigo Album by Chris Brown. 
Choosy by Fabolous had Jeremih on the hook and Davido on the last verse.
Quavo’s first solo body of work opted for Davido in search of that Afro flavor and boy delivered in ‘Swing’ featuring Normani and Davido
The bromance between Popcaan and Davido can’t go unnoticed as they have collaborated severally on both ends and made magic. Popcaan brought OBO on Dun Rich as he explores Nigeria in the visuals.
2am by Casanova alongside Tory Lanez has got to be one of Davido’s biggest international collabo flex as scenes of Casanova and his buddies trended on the net as they get all hyped up while listening to Davido’s verse. “Ay yo Davido! Take them to mother Africa”
All I want by Russ wasn’t any different. He came through with the Afro infusion and an incredible vocal rendition.
 
Davido made a comeback to the industry late 2016. I was mad about that break though because he missed out on so many awards. He came through firstly with “Gbagbe Oshi” and I was impressed to say the least.It wasn’t the custom Davido we all knew and probably why some people slept on it but the switch was laudable. The verse where he tried some reggae stuff got me really hyped. The lyrical built of the song is up there for me. But I knew Davido had so much heat coming and I just laid back expecting domination with his comeback. Weeks later, he dropped ‘Coolest kids in Africa’ featuring Nasty C and I listened to that song back to back for the whole day. Davido was doing trap music in an African way, Afro trap I guess. He doesn’t let you savor the taste of the previous song completely before he hits you again. Enjoying the buzz of Coolest kids in Africa and we got hit with ‘How Long’ featuring Tinashe. I can’t explain it but this song did everything and provided a reference tune to people who doubt his vocal prowess. He went deep Rnb with crazy high notes. It was glorious to hear for the first time. It was so good, Taraji P. Henson felt applauded and needed to come up on Instagram to appreciate him. The three mention songs are singles from his Son Of Mercy EP.
 
After the EP, He released ‘IF’ which has been a game changer and cornerstone for his career. Davido is one out of very few artists who can take a break that long and come back hitting charts and pulling numbers and owning the industry like that. Comebacks have failed big Nigerian artists a lot but he pulled it off and retained his spot. If ‘IF’(you see what I did there?) is a human, he’ll probably be tired of appearing on the chats and making figures off digital sales. It just got remixed by R Kelly. Only D’banjenjoyed that privilege with Pitbull and Estelle doing covers and even videos. 
 
“IF’ is the dominating big thing right now and I’m just waiting for the guy to take me unexpected again as he’s already mastered the craft of doing so. 
I’m just an observer from a critical point of view who eventually got glued to his art and my major focus was how his music has gone through a lot of reformation and always stay appealing to the audience. Secondly, about resting the weight of his success to his family’s money alone, I’ll avoid mentioning names but many silver spoon artists have come through the industry and dropped or still struggling to get the A-list space. Back in 2012-13 forbes released a list of Nigerian richest artists which he missed out on and was ridiculed for expecting his family’s money to get him a spot. Last week he made the list in Africa regardless. Work Work Work I say”
 
The statements in quote above was how I ended this article in 2017. It makes for a good laugh because after ‘IF’ I said I was waiting for him to take me unexpected again and what followed immediately? The biggest Afrobeats song of our time, one of the most viewed on Youtube, top 100 most Shazamed songs in the America that went platinum about a week ago. He dropped the song Fall. Though it was met with criticism, it soared beyond imagination and wrecked the charts. What followed after this, was a whole tsunami of content we actually signed up for. Songs like;
FIA
Like That
Pere Ft Rae Sremmurd and Young Thug
Flora My Flawa
Nwa Baby
Wonder Woman
Assurance
Blow My Mind Ft Chris Brown
Risky Ft Popcaan

 
His sophomore album titled ‘A Good Time’ contained a handful of the above mentioned singles and more gems within it like Intro, 1Milli, Big Picture, Disturbance, D&G, Sweet in the middle, Company and Animashaun.
 

Within these songs and their release period is billboard charts, gold and platinum certifications,sold out mega shows and tours, CNN features, endorsements, BET, MOBO, Soul Train, MTV, World Music awards, a Fiancée, a son, a new luxury home, chart topping label acts/protégés and many more monster milestones. Within this timeline, he built a strong relationship with Chris Brown after working Blow My Mind with him which earned him a spot on Breezy’s album. At a point, it went crazy and the accolades came through multiple angles and would be tricky to keep count but kick here is, he owns his game and it’s just impressive to watch. In 2017, this article ended with a curious mindset expecting more from him and it’s needless to say, he has outdone himself and lived up to every applause he gets. And now, I’m ending this year’s part with;
 
‘GO FOR EVERYTHING DAVID!’