5 times we’ve seen heavy feuds in Nigerian music

With the recent fracas between Wizkid and Davido on social media, one would think they are the first to have these kinds of problems with each other. It would be easy to label them as spoilt babies, focusing on fighting instead of music and putting their ego before the desires of the fans.

Nigerian music is no stranger to deep, violent feuds, however. Since the 70s, we have witnessed top-of-the-game superstars go head-to-head with each other, and for decades.

Stars have come and gone with their fights, but their stories remain here for us to tell. Here’s a list of five serious feuds we’ve had in Nigerian music history. 

K1 and Obesere

In Fuji music, allegiances run even deeper owing to the genre’s genealogy to Apala and similarity with hip-hop, two music styles deeply interwoven into everyday life and the aggrandized personalities of their mouthpieces.

Kwam 1 and Obesere were two kings at the top of their game in the contemporary music space. The artists were the new Kings of Fuji, a genre coined out by the popular Barrister in the early 80s. Fuji music had seen a lot of beef, and theirs was no different. 

Both artists were very vocal about their resentment for each other and caused heavy problems on the streets. Being a genre that was heavily recognized as street music, one can only imagine the level of segregation and trouble they caused between fans. 

Their beef went on from the early 2000s up to 2018. During the political issues that surrounded Lagos state in 2018, Obesere came out to label King Wasiu Ayinde as as a traitor and an “ingrate who doesn’t care to bite the hands that once fed him”. He accused him of disrespecting their father in the game the late Alhaji Ayinde Barrister, denying him and all he did for them.

He also accused him of rubbishing “another amongst our highly respected seniors in the business, Alhaji Ayinla Kollington, and I can go on and on to relay some of his past ignoble actions that portrayed him as someone who cannot be trusted. And that exactly has been the crux of our disagreement’s overtimes.” 

One would recall that there was a time when Obesere built a house and designed it exactly like KWAM 1’s house back in the years. 

From the late 90s till 2019, both artists continued to fight each other, majorly about their personal lives and for the top spot as the king of Fuji music. They settled issues in 2021, and one can only hope that they really put an end to one of the most interesting music battles in our history. 

Saheed Osupa and Pasuma

Sometime in March 2009, Sir Kollington Ayinla sat among well-wishers and a buzzing atmosphere of socialites and Yoruba royalty for the wedding of his daughter. Pasuma Wonder and Saheed Osupa are present to give the crowd a good time.

Unfortunately, things went south as Pasuma performed and Osupa’s fans clamoured to remove him from the stage. Their boss was coming, they said, and Pasuma wasn’t wanted or needed around. The situation turned itself into a Royal Rumble and two people were left to rue the day: the bride and her father.

What happened at Sir Kollington’s daughter’s wedding is one of the many instances of what happens when Pasuma and Osupa cross paths backed by legions of fanatics and supporters. 

Pasuma, one of Nigeria’s most prominent fuji artistes rose from Mushin in Lagos.

Pasuma and Osupa initially started off on good terms, due to their joint apprenticeship in their younger years under Wasiu Ayinde Marshall (Kwam 1) in the early 90s.

Fast forward to the late 2000s, both musicians are at their respective peaks and two of the most celebrated voices in Fuji. This naturally led to comparisons, all thanks to the media occasionally speculating bad blood without confirmation.

But by the release of “Ijoba” (which loosely translates as ‘government), a title track of an album of the same name in 2009, Pasuma had proclaimed himself the undisputed king of Fuji, rebuffing any other claims to the same throne.

This was the beginning of the end. 

Saheed Osupa was one of the Fuji musicians who thought themselves a focal point of Pasuma’s “Ijoba”. He felt directly attacked by the statement, seeing this self-coronation as a question mark on his own ‘kingly’ status conferred on him by the Father of Fuji, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister. From then on, what might have been nothing became something serious. 

As the rivalry for the throne of Fuji continued to fuel the feud, Fuji music fans split into Pasuma or Saheed Osupa factions, with both artist preparing fans and supporters for all kinds of showdowns.

After every diss track was another one, along with public jabs and subliminal messages using a range of mediums-from T-Shirt inscriptions to album titles. The touchy points of the rivalry sometimes bordered on petty details.

Pasuma raps of Osupa’s inability to afford a pilgrimage to Mecca. Osupa goes on one, just to prove he can. Pasuma gets a Chrysler? Osupa gets one too. Even sports is not left out of this bickering malice as Pasuma aligned himself with Premier League side, Arsenal while Osupa brandished Chelsea’s insignia.

Both musicians took opposing sides whenever they could and a teeming legion of fans would follow suit.

Before a reconciliation was finally made possible between Osupa and Pasuma, the tales of blood from their engagements were a lot to think about. A Pasuma concert was not a safe place for an Osupa fan and likewise for the other camp. More often than not, fights broke out and blood was spilt.

The struggle for supremacy was especially real for fans with matching tales of scars, weapons, death tolls and police arrests for every diss, jab and statement made by the artists. 

King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey

King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey ruled the Juju music scene for decades, lasting from the 60s till Ebenezer Obey decided to cross over to Gospel music.

While Obey’s lyrics leaned towards moral and religious teachings, Sunny Ade’s compositions often delved into diverse themes, including love, social issues, and folklore. Their beats, though rooted in Yoruba traditions, have 2 different expressions, each focusing on their individual messages.

While Sunny Ade’s guitar mastery was often said to put him at the forefront, driving the rhythm for dance and glee. Obey’s lyrical depth and moral influence captivated fans to his music while Sunny Ade’s instrumental creativity and stage dynamism took him far and wide. 

Their rivalry was projected more by fans and media houses at the time as opposed to themselves, and they have both come out to say that they were more of friends than people thought, and there was no rivalry between them whatsoever. 

The outlook was different at the time, however, as fans took to each other’s throats with every drop and record. As the two biggest icons in Afro-Juju music at the time, one can understand why there would be a rivalry between both, even if said artists were friendly to each other in their personal lives. 

Chief Dr Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and Gen. Kollington Ayinla

Barrister Ayinde is popularly referred to as the creator of the genre we now know as Fuji, and was rivalled by Kollington Ayinla, a child star who rose to fame from the slums of Ebute Metta.

When the civil war broke out, Kollington decided to join the military and was later joined by his childhood friend Barrister, who was shipped out to the war front (majorly because he was five years older).

He survived the war but was hit with a bullet that forced his early return back to Lagos. They both continued to make music, and trouble started when they ended up on opposite sides of the feud between Ayinla Omowura and Fatai Olowonyo, Apala musicians who were at the top of their game. Barrister had a problem with Ayinla who took the praise Barrister had for him and spun it around to label him an usurper. 

The beef lasted for a while till Barrister and Kollington did a joint play titled “Ija Pari” in 1982. The truce didn’t last as both artists went back to being at loggerheads with each other. Olowonyo and Omowura later made up, but the youngsters were already so far in their beef and at the top of their own game to give up so easily.

Kollington had a lot on his plate, and also had fights with his wife Salawa Abeni and her ex-husband. The feud went on through the 80s and early 90s and then cooled off as there was a new player in town by the name of KWAM 1.

They squashed the beef and settled at the death and burials of their mothers, sending cows as symbols of peace and appreciation to each other. 

Wizkid and Davido

These two need no introduction. Since Wizkid burst onto the scene in 2010 and Davido a year later, they have been at war with each other.

There’s always the occasional make-up love story, but they seem to go right back to it after a while. From diss tracks to call-out messages on social media, Wizkid and Davido have kept alive the culture of beef in the Nigerian Music Space.

Davido

They’re no strangers to the game and will definitely not be the last we will see or hear of these kinds of problems in music.