Ikedi Mekz reports that with ‘Ojuelegba’, Wizkid fashioned a new sound that won global appeal, has earned massive airplay around the world, and even serving as fashion music runway theme song, like the ARISE FASHION WEEK (AFW) 2021, which held in Dubai.
The relationship between fashion and popular music is one of abundant and mutual creativity. Some of this relationship exists as memorable creations for the stage and music video; others become long-lasting fashion trends, which settle in the culture to become noteworthy, referential, and lasting. Hence, music offers fashion more than a theme or a movement. Occasionally, a performer possesses fashion awareness that directly influences fashion.
During the summer of 2012, one of the biggest UK chart hits was Oliver Twist, the feel good pop and Afrobeat mashup that mirrored the lascivious desires of D’Banj, the energetic Nigerian singer then on the roster of Good Music, whose front man Kanye West had a cameo appearance in the video. The following summer, it’s another Nigerian singer, Wizkid – Ayodeji Balogun -whose name is a fixture all over the charts.
Currently Africa’s hottest pop star by almost any measure, the Starboy Entertainment frontier, Wizkid had sometime unveiled his new capsule collection with a takeover of Reign in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Better known as a destination for hard-to-find Y-3 gear, the New York City street wear shop was remade, floor to ceiling, in Wizkid’s image for the pop-up, complete with a glass dome emblazoned “Starboy” (the name of the new collection, as well as Wizkid’s music imprint and longtime nickname).
From this futuristic perch, the Starboy himself performed and posed for a veritable flash mob of devotees. “For me, when I dropped my last project, I just felt it was time to do something for my fans, so they could have almost like, a piece of me,” explained Wizkid, unwinding from the impromptu concert in the shop’s secluded backyard. “I sat down with my team, and we did a couple designs, we designed some shirts and some bandanas, and we just decided to put it up for the fans—something we intend to do like every three months, put out new collections.”
Afrobeats, a scene centered in Lagos, fuses the melodic sense of West African Highlife and Palm-wine music with a range of Black Atlantic sounds, including dancehall, Soca, and U.K. soul, to arrive at a truly Pan-African pop place. (In fact Wizkid and some other Nigerian artists describe the movement as “Afropop” and avoid the term “Afrobeats,” which was coined in the U.K. to describe the emerging sound).
Lest those new to it underestimate the street value of a piece of Wizkid—the genre’s undisputed king—the shop was jam-packed with hundreds of die-hard fans feverishly snapping pics and exuding Beatlemania-levels of nervous energy at being so close to their idol (he generally performs at arena-size venues in New York and London). They were also ready to scream the words to every song he performed, from his international crossover “Ojuelegba” (which inspired Drake and Skepta to jump on a remix) to more recent hits off his ‘Made In Lagos’ LP, like ‘Essence’, which has been named Song of Summer.
“Ojuelegba” originates from his sophomore album ‘AYO’ released in 2014 and its slower rhythm and synthesizers propose a mix of dancehall and g-funk—an ideal case of how different classes wind up noticeably simple apparatuses for Afropop artists. “Ojuelegba” is the 5th track off the album. Ojuelegba is one of Wizkid’s most successful single till date. The song is named for an area of Lagos, Nigeria, and portrays WizKid’s move to turning into a noteworthy recording star.
With ‘Ojuelegba’, Wizkid fashioned a new sound that won global appeal. While not as anthem as some of his greater records, it’s an eminently replayed earworm in any case. No doubt, ‘Ojuelegba’ has earned massive airplay around the world, even serving as fashion music runway theme song, like the ARISE FASHION WEEK (AFW) 2021, Africa’s most dominant and dazzling runway platform, holding in Dubai. From Lagos to US to London, Wizkid has carried the ‘Ojuelegba’ appeal.
In Dubai, the Grammy-award winning singer Wizkid, and friends provided musical entertainment. Since its return, Arise Fashion Week has been at the forefront of promoting and celebrating the next generation of African fashion designers. In collaboration with the Nigeria Pavilion at Expo2020 Dubai and Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment, the ARISE FASHION WEEK hosted the best in the world of fashion and creativity, supported by great Nigerian music currently taking the world by storm.
