Davido

In 2011, watching Kanye West sign D'Banj to G.O.O.D. Music and "Oliver Twist" climb the UK charts, a college dropout in Atlanta decided his own shot had arrived. "Guys like D'banj, they were legendary status," Davido told The FADER. "I was looking at them like, damn, these guys are really big out here... I need to take the opportunity now." Within months he was back in Lagos recording his first single. He later called it "important to pay homage" to that generation — the artists, in his account, who cleared the ground his own career was built on.

listen: upstream & heresource: The FADER — Davido cover story (D'Banj influence quote) ↗share

2008

TongoloD'Banj

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2011

Dami DuroDavido

listen forNigerian critic Wale Owoade drew the parallel directly: D'Banj's 2008 hit "Tongolo" was, in his words, "a song that defined his audience and launched his Koko Master persona," much as Davido's 2011 breakout "Dami Duro" did for him. Play them together and the kinship is in the construction: both bury the verses and ride a single barked hook-phrase over a hard, synthetic club beat until the phrase becomes shorthand for the artist himself — "Koko Master" for D'Banj, "Dami Duro" as Davido's own nickname across Lagos within weeks.

Long before he discovered his father's Nigerian records, Davido's musical diet in Atlanta was American radio rap. "What artists did you grow up listening to?" OkayAfrica asked him. "I grew up listening to 50 Cent, T.I., artists like that," he said, tracing the same taste in a separate interview to his mother's house parties, where he remembers being "a big Ja' Rule fan, 50 Cent, everybody." He started out rapping in a group called KB Entertainment before switching to the sound that made him famous, but the chant-first, party-detonating instinct of that hip-hop upbringing never left his music.

listen: upstream & heresource: OkayAfrica — Davido interview (50 Cent, T.I. namecheck; Nigeria trip quote) ↗share

2003

P.I.M.P.50 Cent

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2013

SkelewuDavido

listen forSet 50 Cent's 2003 hit "P.I.M.P." beside Davido's 2013 hit "Skelewu": each rides a slinky, minimal groove built less to be sung along with than to be moved to. 50 Cent's half-sung swagger over that beat became its own walk; "Skelewu" became a viral dance craze of the same name across Nigeria within weeks of release. Both turn a hook into an instruction the whole room can follow.

Years before his own breakout, an Atlanta high schooler with outsized ambition used to play his American classmates records by two Nigerian acts. "When I was in school in Atlanta, I was playing D'Banj and P-Square and my friends loved it, but if they didn't hear it, how would they find out about it?" Davido told Complex. P-Square, the twin duo Peter and Paul Okoye, were among the architects of what writers call Naija Hip-Hop — R&B, hip-hop, and house folded into Nigerian rhythm — the pre-Afrobeats sound Davido's own early singles grew directly out of once he got home.

listen: upstream & heresource: Complex — Davido interview (D'Banj and P-Square namecheck) ↗share

2011

No One Like YouP-Square

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2017

IfDavido

listen forNeither artist has pointed to one song passing the torch here; the tie is stylistic, built on the sound P-Square helped define rather than a specific homage. Set their 2011 hit "No One Like You," with its glossy synth pads and close-harmonized vocals, against Davido's 2017 hit "If": both stretch one simple, repeated declaration of devotion over a warm, mid-tempo Afro-R&B groove, engineered as much for a wedding playlist as a night out.