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Wizkid, hails Olamide amidst alleged Asake fallout

December 28, 2024

“Love baddo! 4 L (for life) tin,” wrote pop star, Wizkid, on his Twitter page on December 26, 2024. As someone who is mostly known to be taciturn on social media except when he chooses to rant or throw “shades”, whatever Wizkid writes on social media, no matter how sparse, is often given a lot of attention and importance. This was especially so at a time when news was rife that Olamide and his star artiste, Asake, had fallen out. Many fans and pundits interpreted Wizkid’s post to be a message of solidarity and support for Olamide at this period, even though that might not be so.

Love baddo! 4L ting ❤️🦅
— Wizkid (@wizkidayo) December 26, 2024

Hours before Wizkid’s tweet, social media had been abuzz because Asake had gone on an Instagram “cleaning spree”, deleting all but one of his pictures, removing YBNL (his record label) from his profile, and “unfollowing” Olamide Adedeji, aka Baddo, his label boss.

Though either parties have not made any statement on the issue, the development has elicited diverse theories, explanations, arguments and admonitions. Olamide’s last tweet was a response to Wizkid’s profession of love. “Eleniyan! Love always brother,” he wrote. Meanwhile, as of Friday morning, “Olamide” and “Asake” respectively were trending topics on Twitter.

Some industry watchers claimed that Asake’s contract with YBNL had expired and he did not want to renew it. A report by PM News alleged, “Reports claim that Olamide proposed a new deal, but Asake chose to pursue independence, ultimately walking away from the label two weeks ago.”

It is public knowledge that the ‘Sungba’ singer signed a deal with YBNL in February 2022. Saturday Beats cannot independently verify the terms of the contract though there have been different terms and conditions bandied on social media. However, Asake had often spoken about how Olamide changed his life with the record deal. In an interview with Hip TV about two years ago, he stated that he “begged” Olamide for two years before the former offered him a deal. He added, “One day, I got to his house and he asked me, ‘How are you, Asake?’ I said I was fine. And he asked me, ‘Would you like to join YBNL?’

“You don’t understand, for somebody you look up to, somebody you respect, somebody you’ve been longing to see, to ask you that question. I told him that I was ready. He said, ‘Go and think about it. Go and look for a lawyer.’ I said, ‘Baba, sign me right now. I don’t want any lawyer. Because I love the [YBNL] family so much even from afar.”

However, it is pertinent to note that this is not the first time Asake is removing “YBNL” from his profile. He did the same thing in June 2024 and it also caused a lot of reactions online.