Artistes whose careers flourished with Olamide’s support [READ]

Nigerian rapper, Olamide Gbenga Adedeji, popularly known as Olamide Gbenga Adedeji, has been of immense help to many up and coming artistes.

Despite churning out several hit songs over the years, the YBNL boss has also supported the careers of many artistes

Fireboy DML

Fireboy is no doubt one of the reigning artistes at the moment. The singer who was signed to YBNL in 2019 recently spoke about how Olamide helped him when he had writers block while recording ‘Playboy’, his new album.

He told Fader Magazine, “I started making the album in late 2020. Along the line, I had writer’s block, which happened to be my first creative block ever. I panicked. I thought I had lost my mojo. I called Olamide, my mentor, and he said, “Relax. It’s your first time. I know how it feels. You need to change your environment.”

In an earlier interview with The Punch, the ‘Peru’ crooner also said Olamide was the one who reached out to him. He said, “Olamide actually reached out to me himself. He explained how much he believed in my dream and said he wanted to make things happen for me. I could not refuse.”

Asake

Rave of the moment, Asake, recently acquired a house months after joining YBNL. Earlier in the month, the ‘Sungba’ sensation had written on Twitter, “One call from Olamide and everything changed.”

In an earlier interview with Saturday Beats, he also stated that being signed to YBNL was a miracle. He said, “Getting signed to YBNL was a miracle. One of my friends, Yemolee, played my songs for Olamide. He liked ‘Omo Ope’, and we did the remix together. After the song and video were released, Olamide asked me to come to the house and casually asked, ‘Will you like to join the family’? I was blown away with excitement and took the deal as fast as it came. It remains one of the best decisions I have ever made.”

Adekunle Gold

Adekunle Gold’s success story is incomplete without Olamide’s contribution. Shedding light on how the self-proclaimed ‘Baddo’ impacted his music career, Adekunle Gold once said, “Getting signed to YBNL took me to London for the first time. That was in 2015. So, YBNL changed everything for me. I am grateful to Olamide for all the support and inspiration.”

Lil Kesh

Lil Kesh was signed to Olamide’s record label in 2014. While confirming his exit from the label in 2016, Lil Kesh stated that YBNL remained a family to him. He had said, “It is true that my contract ended about two weeks ago. My contract with YBNL was for two years but that is the business side to it. My contract included three videos and one album. But, Baddo went out of his way to shoot about five videos for me. Business or no business YBNL is family and will always be.”

Zlatan Ibile

When ‘Ale Yi’ singer, Zlatan Ibile, needed to leverage on a more established artiste to break into the industry, it was Olamide he featured in his song, ‘My Body’. In an interview, Zlatan noted that Olamide inspired him in the early days of his career.

Portable

Though many have described Portable’s rise to stardom as that of grass to grace, it wasn’t without Olamide’s support. After popular dancer, Poco Lee, introduced Portable to Olamide, Olamide featured on a remix of Portable’s song ‘Zazuu Zeh’. That turned out to be what thrust the controversial singer into the limelight.

Bella Shmurda

Dancer, Poco Lee, was also the one who introduced Bella Shmurda to Olamide. In 2019, Shmurda featured Olamide on the remix of his song, ‘Vision 2020’. The collaboration helped Shmurda to gain more acceptance in the music industry.

According to The Punch, other artistes that have enjoyed Olamide’s support include Chinko Ekun, Picasso Rhap, Yomi Blaze, Lyta and Temmie Ovwasa.