walking upstream…
Wizkid
Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun grew up in Ojuelegba, a bustling Lagos neighborhood whose street sounds — fuji blaring from roadside speakers, Congolese makossa drifting past bus stops — seeped into a childhood already steeped in Fela Kuti and Bob Marley records. Signed to Banky W's Empire Mates Entertainment at nineteen, he spent his twenties turning that mix into a lighter, melody-forward Afrobeats sound, then broke it globally with 2016's 'One Dance' alongside Drake — the first Afrobeats song to top the US Billboard Hot 100. By Made in Lagos (2020) he'd distilled the sound further into an unhurried, atmospheric pop-Afrobeats hybrid that reshaped what the genre could sound like on the world stage.
the sound in question
2021
EssenceWizkid
walk the tributaries ↓
Fela Kuti1970s · Afrobeat / Funk / Jazz
Wizkid has said outright that he grew up listening to a lot of Fela's records and that it 'somehow influenced' his own style; it surfaces less as protest than as a loose, horn-and-percussion-inflected groove sense running under his Afrobeats production.
listen: upstream & here
1973
GentlemanFela Kuti
2014
OjuelegbaWizkid
listen forPlay Fela's brassy, satirical 'Gentleman,' then Wizkid's 'Ojuelegba' — both ride a rolling, horn-tinged Lagos-street pulse, even though Wizkid trades Fela's extended political vamp for a tight, radio-length hook.
Bob Marley1970s · Reggae / Roots reggae / Ska
By his own account Wizkid grew up on Bob Marley songs alongside Fela's, and reggae's loping, one-drop-adjacent bounce and patois-flecked phrasing turn up across his catalog, most explicitly on a generation-crossing duet with Marley's son.
listen: upstream & here
1977
JammingBob Marley
2020
BlessedWizkid
listen forSet Marley's easy, rolling 'Jamming' against Wizkid and Damian Marley's 'Blessed' — the same unhurried reggae lift under the vocal, now filtered through Afrobeats production.
2Baba2000s · Afrobeats / Afropop / Reggae
As a teenager learning the ropes at producer OJB Jezreel's Point Beat Studios, Wizkid watched 2Baba record sessions for Grass 2 Grace in person; commentators on Nigerian pop routinely frame Wizkid's generation as picking up the baton 2Baba's 2004 breakthrough first carried into the mainstream.
listen: upstream & heresource: ThrillNG ↗
2004
African Queen2Baba
2010
Holla At Your BoyWizkid
listen forHear how 2Baba's 'African Queen' set the template — a plainspoken, radio-friendly Nigerian pop-R&B hook — then play Wizkid's debut single 'Holla at Your Boy' for that same unfussy, melody-first approach a few years and a production upgrade later.