Nigerian singer and businessman Bankole Wellington, popularly known as Banky W recently shared a video online where he talked about how he gave the name Wizkid to the Grammy-winning singer, Ayo Balogun.
Banky W was the one who signed Wizkid to his record label, EME, before Wizkid started his own label, StarBoy Entertainment.
In the interview, Banky W called Wizkid a “studio rat,” explaining that he used to struggle to pay for studio time.
Prompt News reports that he mentioned that Wizkid would spend long hours in studios that let him stay,
Banky W explained that the name ‘WIZ’ comes from Wiz being the quickest songwriter he knows.
He mentioned that Wiz just needs to hear the beat, and then the song is done because he doesn’t write it down; he’s a genius.
He said, “Wizkid for a long time in his life was not fortunate enough to afford or pay for studio time and so he was a studio rat as he will go to any studio where they will let him hang out and he would hang out all day and just wait, hope and pray for the end of the day for the engineers and producers to just take pity on him and say oya, come, come and record for 15 mins 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 did not 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 listen to music, he would start freestyling a melody that would become a song that the whole world would want to sing and that is where the name Wiz started from, his genius-level creation of melodies is at the spur of the moment.”
Read some comments below:
@daddy_marvel: That’s true, back then, he used to hang out beside the canal at OJB studio in Gbaja Street, Surulere, waiting and hoping for studio sessions after Sound Sultan n co. . Every hustler has a story and humble beginnings. RIP to OJB and Sound Sultan.
@blxi001′: Them suppose put big wiz history for Netflix ❤️ man is a ⭐️.
@iam_jaykrid: I can see that from the video behind the studio work with 2baba how dey recorded the song for that alcoh*l drink den.
@stylebyranking: This is the more reason why we love him and he can’t go wrong came from nothing to something with pure talent ❤️.
@adenike.ashaolu: Hope una don hear now, no be una wey go dey jump upandan 🐸🐸🐸😂😂.
@captain_mavins: Why you go hate wizkid tell me 😢❤️🦅.
@dammy_prodigy: 30bingos no go school, dem no know the meaning of WIZ,it means IBRAHIM nah WIZARD.
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