Fela Or Wizkid- Who's Greater Nigerian Music Idol?

I love how Wizkid has set the trend for emancipation of one's mind from mental slavery especially through music. The debut of Wizkid then was an eye opener to teenagers and the GenZ’s to come who then were just "barely over being infants." We back then were somewhere in between our second year going on third as students in the University of Benin and you know what life in Nigeria was like then for young and aspiring minds like ours. The mantra was "go to school, get a good job and become responsible".

Banky W signed Wizkid to Empire Mates Entertainment (EME) record label in 2009, after discovering him as a promising young artist who was already involved in the music scene, leading to Wizkid's breakout with "Holla at Your Boy" from his debut Superstar album in 2011 and a great collaboration in the history books of the Nigerian music industry for them began. It was impressive seeing what a young man with barely any beard on his mustache nor chin could do with carrying a tune and singing sweet melodies.

Wizkid was phenomenal, inspirational and fucking EPIC. But the industry then was saturated with young adults like Eedris Abdulkareem, Azadus, Tony Tetuila, Banky W 🤣, 2face Idibia, Black face, Daddy showkey, Danfo drivers, African China, I believe you get my drift by now. Wizkid was one of the oddities of the industry, the unexpected, because the genesis of Wizkid happened at a time when Nigerian parents and the Nigerian society at large were mostly disciplined, strict and morally responsible, or pretending to be so...

Anyways teenagers at this time were fed up with the limitations caused by Nigerian parenting, and this also was a time of great technology innovations and trends. First with desktop computers and internet cafes, mobile phones, DSTV, Blackberry, Play station, Google's android and Apple's Iphone. These tech trends were just getting assimilated by the Nigerian population especially the Nigerian teenagers who were starving for an opportunity to experience "REAL LIFE" as it was mostly referred to then.

In this time a Nigerian teenager could hardly purchase a bottle of beer in a bar, or a stick of cigarette at a store. Not because of lack of money to afford it but because majority of retailers would on sighting a teenager refuse to sell. Parents wanted their children home and indoors by 6 PM latest. Girls wore skirts that touched their ankles and barely ever wore trousers.

Harlotry and prostitution was frowned on and armed robbery was the most popular end of wayward children. These young Nigerian children latched onto the music of Wizkid like seasoned junkies addicted to heroin or cocaine and thus the IDOL was created.

Not so unlike Fela Anikulakpo Kuti, Ayo Balogun aka Wizkid became a symbol which represented the desperation and rebellion of the Nigerian youths and teenagers against especially Nigerian parenting culture, society’s restrictions endorsed and enforced by authority figures, creative limitations set by the accustomed Nigerian traditions as at the time, and a testimony that becoming a successful Nigerian youth could be achieved through unconventional methods like becoming a music icon, and it didn’t require that one must be thoroughly educated. Though it did require being signed to an established and well recognized music label with the budget capacity to afford the highest standard of music and music video production, all the right networks in the industry scene and of course talent, being a music superstar meant you actually had to be able to sing and perform. Of course Wizkid luckily had all that going for him as at then and still apparently.

Where I don’t approve the comparison between Fela and Wizkid, is in the pedigree of both distinctive individuals. Fela was born by an elite in society as at his time and even had the opportunity to study in the UK and to travel diaspora before his notorious fame in the Nigerian music industry. He sang songs antagonizing the government, echoing the feelings and sentiments of the majority of the Nigerian masses. Like an activist, he used his music to communicate and express the devastation of the Nigerian masses and protest the lack of development of the Nigerian system of Government. Whereas Wizkid was born from middle class or even poor parents at some point. His rise to fame was one that told a tale of the rise from rags to riches, he didn’t attain proper thorough education or doesn’t possess a Bachelor’s degree from any accredited Nigerian or international University, and his songs were and still are not protests targeted at the government, clamors for society development, a voice pleading the plight of the Nigerian masses, but instead were and are songs intended solely for commercial purposes and entertainment.

Either way both music icons have left their mark on the Nigerian music industry, accomplishing great feats deserving of recognition, and serving as a source of inspiration and motivation to the Nigerian people especially and the world at large.