Nigerian singer and music executive, Bankole Wellington, known as Banky W, has disclosed the story behind discovering his former protege, Wizkid.
He claimed that, in contrast to rumors circulating, he actually spotted the “Ojuelegba” crooner in the studio rather than on social media.
Banky W emphasized that he had already signed Wizkid at the time and that they were merely making jokes on social media when he clarified that the previous tweet from Wizkid pleading with him to sign him was a joke.
The singer-turned-pastor urged followers to let God and their assistants discover them working in a video message that went viral on X.
He said, “Let God and the helper that he would use find you doing something. For some people, God will only find you tweeting.
“Just a few days ago, I noticed my Twitter was going crazy. And I went on and I discovered that people found an old tweet from Wizkid where he said, ‘Hey, Mr Banky, my name is Wizkid. I’m upcoming artist. Please, I need you to help me.’ And then they found a reply that I said, ‘Okay, please send me your demo.’
“And people were pointing to that as the inception of the moment where Wizkid and I started working together. And I hate to burst everybody’s bobble, but that moment was just a joke.
“We have actually been working together for about a year. He has been signed, we have been making music and releasing music. We were just being playful at the time when those tweets were sent.
“I didn’t find wizkid from him tweeting, I found him while he was working. I heard his music when I was just listening to a bunch of unsigned artists.
“Before he even started working with me, he had already recorded a chorus with M.I. The very first day I saw Wiz in person, we was a back-up singer for Kellz at an event. He was faithfully serving as Kellz’s hypeman.”
According to reports, in 2009, Banky W signed Wizkid to his label, Empire Mates Entertainment.
Later, after the release of “Holla at Your Boy,” the lead single from his 2011 debut studio album Superstar, he gained notoriety.
Following the 2014 release of his sophomore album, “Ayo,” Wizkid left EME.