Banky W: How I discovered Wizkid

Nigerian singer and music executive, Bankole Wellington, well known as Banky W, has spoken on how he discovered Wizkid, his former Empire Mates Entertainment (EME) signee.

In a now viral video on X, Banky W said contrary to speculations that he discovered Wizkid on social media, he found him in the studio.

According to him, a tweet from his former signee urging him to sign him was a joke, adding that he had already signed Wizkid then.

He said, “Let God and the helper that he would use find you doing something. For some people, God will only find you tweeting.

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“Just a few days ago, I noticed my Twitter was going crazy. And I went on and I discovered that people found an old tweet from Wizkid where he said, ‘Hey, Mr Banky, my name is Wizkid. I’m upcoming artist. Please, I need you to help me.’ And then they found a reply that I said, ‘Okay, please send me your demo.’

“And people were pointing to that as the inception of the moment where Wizkid and I started working together. And I hate to burst everybody’s bobble, but that moment was just a joke.

“We have actually been working together for about a year. He has been signed, we have been making music and releasing music. We were just being playful at the time when those tweets were sent.

“I didn’t find wizkid from him tweeting, I found him while he was working. I heard his music when I was just listening to a bunch of unsigned artistes.

“Before he even started working with me, he had already recorded a chorus with M.I. The very first day I saw Wiz in person, we was a back-up singer for Kellz at an event. He was faithfully serving as Kellz’s hypeman.”

Banky W signed Wizkid to his label, EME, in 2009.

The ‘Ojuelegba’ crooner exited EME after the release of his sophomore album, ‘Ayo’ in 2014.

Since then, Wizkid has risen to become one of Africa’s most influential music stars.