Record label owner Bankole Wellington a.k.a Banky W said Afrobeat super star Ayodele Balogun a.k.a Wizkid has risen from a downtrodden wannabe artist to a global musical icon.
It was Banky W who gave Wizkid his big break with his first album “Super Star” released by Empire Mates Entertainment owned by Banky W in 2011 with producers Samklef, E-Kelly, Jay Sleek, Shizzi, DJ Klem, Masterkraft, Q-Beats, Banky W and Vebee working up the beats.
“Wizkid for a long time in his life was not fortunate enough to afford studio time,” said Banky W in a video posted online.
“So, he was a studio rat as he will go to any studio where they will let him hang out and he will hang out all day waiting, hoping and praying that engineers and producers to just pity him and say oya, come and record for 15 or 30 mins because he could not pay for his session.
“So, all day long, he would be working on hooks and melodies and just coming up with things in case he was given the opportunity to jump on the mic for five minutes.
“He didn’t have time to think about what to write at the moment, so that became his process.
“And now he is one of the fastest songwriters that I have ever encountered in my life, he will just sit, listen, and start freestyling a melody that would become a song that the whole world would want to sing. That is where the name Wiz started from,” he said.
