Nigerian musicians Paul Okoye of PSquare and Seun Kuti recently set social media on fire with the two icons hurling abuses at each other which also ignited a fiery online clash among their fans. OLUSESAN OBA in this piece highlights some other high-profile clashes involving Nigerian celebrities.
1. Wizkid vs Davido
Not many people would have envisaged the recent cordiality between two of the biggest artistes from Nigeria given the intensity of their beef which dragged on for many years.
The clash got to a head in 2017 when Davido criticised the choice of sounds deployed by Wizkid in his elpee titled ‘Sounds From The Other Side’. It didn’t take Star Boy too much time to fire back at his adversary taking a swipe at Davido’s singles ‘Summer Body’ which he described as below par.
Wizkid was really enraged by Davido’s criticism of his works going all out to slam his rival by calling him ‘frog face’ with a ‘husky voice’. The fight between the duo sharply polarised the fans of Afrobeats and the beef culminated in a physical fight between the crews of the two musicians at One Music Africa Fest in Dubai that year.
However, normalcy has been installed in their relationship; they sparked off an intense reaction online when they were spotted hugging each other at a nightclub in Lagos and the Starboy confirmed all is now well between the duo when he announced he would be going on tour with his rival soon.
2. Paul vs Peter Okoye (PSquare)
The Twins brother dominated the music scene for many years with their hit tracks and impressive stagecraft. They looked inseparable as they were always seen together at events until cracks appeared between them.
The rift started as a rumour but blew open when Peter wrote a letter accusing Paul and their elder brother Jude Okoye who was their manager of sidelining him in decision-making. In the letter, he opted to discontinue his relationship with the group and spirited efforts by some well-meaning Nigerians including the richest African Aliko Dangote to forestall an impeding breakup of the group proved abortive. The relationship broke down almost irretrievably when the two brothers almost came to blows during a meeting in their lawyer’s office.
They went their separate ways and pursued solo careers which didn’t quite work out until they reconciled recently and continued as PSquare.
3. Liz Anjorin vs Toyin Abraham
It was a feud that was nurtured entirely on social media and was kickstarted by Anjorin who accused her friend Abraham of being behind a report to Saudi Arabia authorities that she was trafficking cocaine which led to her being thoroughly searched at Riyadh Airport.
Anjorin felt betrayed by her supposed friend blasting Toyin for using fake social media pages to attack her colleagues in Nollywood.
Hitting social media, Abraham hit back at her colleague, denying involvement in Anjorin’s ordeal in Saudi Arabia. She threatened to instigate legal action if Anjorin failed to bring down the post and tender an unreserved apology.
Anjorin was not ready to take that and dared Abraham to file a suit. She was not done yet; she further taunted her colleague for giving birth to her new child at a trado-medical facility.
To prove that Anjorin was telling lie, Abraham released a video showing her and the new child at a Lekki, Lagos hospital in what looked like an after-delivery posture.
The feud dragged on until The President of the Theatre Arts and Movie Practitioners Association of Nigeria, Bolaji Amusan, aka Mr Latin, directed the warring friends to cease fire.
4. Don Jazzy vs Olamide
There was no known feud between music executives Don Jazzy and Olamide Badoo until the Headies Awards of 2015. Olamide was left frustrated when Reekado Banks of Mavins Record was given the Next-Rated awards ahead of his own artiste Lil-Kesh. The next-rated award is the biggest highlight of the Headies, apart from the plaque, it attracts a car prize.
Olamide expressed his reservation when he mounted the stage alongside Adekunle Gold who was named Alternative Artiste of the Year. He grabbed the microphone from Adekunle Gold and called out the organisers of Headies saying it was an injustice not to have given Lil Kesh the Next-rated award having churned out ‘hit songs back-to-back’.
However, Don Jazzy, the founder of Mavins Records stirred the hornet’s nest when he later mounted the stage saying, “Olamide, if you want the car come and collect it” This ignited fury from the YBNL boss who hit the Twitter space to attack Don Jazzy calling him fake. “Bleep ur whole generation I am not d banj … God will punish u and ur fake ass …Bastard omo ale forming humble, Olamide had written.
It took the intervention of Dangote before the two music gurus accepted to sheath their swords.
5. MI vs Vector
This is one feud that was nurtured on and off social media. MI and Vector are arguably the biggest rappers in Nigeria’s music industry but the two wordsmiths were at each other jugular for a long time.
It was believed that there had been no love lost between the two but it became noticeable after MI released a song titled, ‘You Rappers Should Fix up Your Lives.’
Vector hit social media to attack MI for condemning Nigerian rappers in the song.
MI was silent on the jibe until he threw a jab at Vector with the 2019 song titled ‘Martell Cypher’.
Vector replied with a track titled ‘The Purge’ which aimed a strong dissing at MI.
It didn’t take long before MI hit back with a viral song he entitled ‘The Viper’ in which he accused Vector of getting himself consumed by jealousy and bitterness.
The ‘heavy words’ in The Viper got to Vector who released another diss track he called ‘Judas the Rat’ in which he accused MI of being responsible for the failure of the music career of his younger brother Jesse Jagz.
Their fans were at one another jugular on social media while the fight lasted.
The two talented rappers have since sheathed their swords and have become friends again by even cementing the relationship with a song they did together called ‘Crown of Clay’.
Peter Okoye vs Seun Kuti
One of the most trending issues on social media space at the moment is the online feud between afro music icon Seun Kuti and Paul Okoye.
The fight started when Peter of the PSquare group slammed Seun who is the son of legendary Fela Anikulapo for saying no Nigerian politician can save the country including the presidential candidate of the Labour Party Peter Obi whom he called an opportunist.
Peter wrote on Twitter that Seun just wiped out Fela’s legacy over his comment on Peter Obi. This got Seun enraged and the Grammy awards nominee hit back with a video calling Peter many names.
The two men have continued to exchange words on social media with their fans based polarised more worrisomely along ethnic and religious lines.
