It has now been confirmed that Dancehall veteran Blackface is at loggerheads with Afro Pop star Wizkid over allegations that the youngster has been “copying his songs” for a long time. Earlier, we reported that there might be an issue between both artistes after the release of Killah, a song in which the former Plantashun Boiz star alluded that Wizkid was a copy cat.
And confirming various suspicions, Black face has spoken exclusively to The Punch on the issue saying that Wizkid has been involved in the act for some time but he chose to keep quiet about it in order to let peace reign.
The controversies surrounding Wizkid and “song theft” came to light after fellow Afro Pop singer Dammy Krane took to Twitter and bashed him on Tuesday, January 12. Subsequently, both artistes were involved in a club fight in the early hours of Friday, January 15 before entertainment industry stakeholders stepped in and helped quell the situation.
Speaking on the issue, Blackface said even though Ojuelegba had made Wizkid a lot of money he is not bothered. Rather, he wants the music industry to become aware of the problems in the wake of song theft, especially as he suspects people are bent on killing his legacy.
Blackface also said he had warned Wizkid prior to this time via a conversation on Twitter but the youngster refused to listen.
He told Punch that the Caro singer had been lifting his materials from as far back as his 2010 album, specifically from track 13 of the album.
He said: “I never really wanted to talk about it all this while but after people started checking out my new song, Killa, many felt Blackface sounded like Wizkid, which I didn’t like.
“If you check properly, you would realise that Wizkid’s hit, Ojuelegba, sounds exactly the same as the track 13 on my dancehall album released as far back as 2010.
You need to listen to that album to know what I am talking about. The song is so similar that I think it shouldn’t be that way.
“Well, in Killa I sang that “they tried to copy my melody,” and the bloggers got a hint of the gist and put their reports out. What I said is the truth and I am going to get to the root of this matter because I deserve justice.
“The Ojuelegba song has made so much revenue for Wizkid. I am not
bothered about that but I want the industry to be in a position whereby
people will understand that some of the artistes and the songs they are
cheering is someone else’s efforts, especially fellow artistes that they
are doing everything to bring down. All they are doing is to bring down
Blackface and to say that he is not relevant in the industry. Some
people are bent on killing my legacy. I believe there is definitely a
gang-up against me in the industry and this has been going on for a long
time.”
The Benue indigene has since stated that he could pursue legal means to get justice if Wizkid and any other artiste out there goes ahead to use his materials without following due process.
Blackface is a veteran Nigerian dancehall singer who was a key member of the defunct music group, Plantashun Boiz.
He is widely famed for co-writing the multi award-winning song African Queen, as well as for his lyrical contributions to the group which also had 2face Idibia and Faze.
The group broke up in the early 2000s and saw singer 2face rise to international prominence while the other members struggle to grapple with the harsh tides of swimming in the Nigerian music industry on a solo career.
